KL Rahul: In search of a new dawn

India don’t lose often in home Tests and they certainly don’t lose more than once in a single year. But 2024 has shown a mortal side to them as they succumbed to a second defeat, this time to New Zealand in Bengaluru on Sunday.

Even as the Indian players shook hands with Will Young and Rachin Ravindra, some cameras caught KL Rahul bowing down to the Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch, as if to thank the surface where it all started for him.

Moments such as these are rarely seen in Indian cricket and a player touching the pitch on Sunday brought back memories from a different time when, in November 2013, Sachin Tendulkar-after the most extraordinary farewell given to any cricketer in 21st century-walked up to the Wankhede Stadium pitch and gestured in the same manner as Rahul did on Sunday.

It was a poignant, soul-stirring moment of a generational talent bowing down to a cricketing centre that had meant so much to him. There is no doubting that Bengaluru means a lot to Rahul as well, but your guess is good as mine to think whether he believes he may have played his last Test on his home ground for the near future, which may have forced such a reaction out of him.

His Test career, however, is in a desperate need of a new dawn, which we suspected may have happened when he got that fantastic hundred against South Africa at Centurion, batting in the middle-order in December last year. But now we can look back and say that it wasn’t the case as Rahul has been unable to kick on as a middle-order batter, thus far, partly because of injuries and partly because of finding it hard to settle down. The latter is a question which Rahul must ask himself more seriously: Do I have the motivation to become a middle-order batter for India?

It became evident in the Bengaluru Test that India was not looking at him as a top-order batter when there is a need to push anyone up, almost like his performances at Lord’s and Centurion in 2021 counted for zilch.

Virat Kohli-an all-time great number three in ODIs-was pushed up to three in a format where he had batted only four times before this Test. It was a sign that India did not look at Rahul to be competent enough to face the new ball, if an early wicket fell, or maintain the momentum of an innings if the openers gave a good start.

Most batters experience their best phase as Test batters between the age of 28 and 32. Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli were India’s best batters during those years. They got runs almost everywhere around the world and were the team’s batting Batmans, in their respective eras.

That golden harvest of runs, however, has not come in Rahul’s career with the same level of consistency as he or his supporters would have desired and so at 32, he must find a second wind to his Test career in a different role.

A deeper introspection might help Rahul find motivation from another Indian great who also had to reinvent his career in his thirties. Right from his junior days to playing for Hyderabad, VVS Laxman was a top-order batter and a mighty fine top-order batter. His boundary striking ability made him the perfect fit for that position and he would have hoped it would be a natural transition for him when the national call-up came.

But that did not turn out to be the case. Dravid had done well enough to cement his place as the number three batter in the side and with Laxman showing reluctance to open the batting, it meant he had to will himself to become a middle-order batter.

Some might say that his best years as a batter came between 2001 and 2004, but those who look for effectiveness over style in Laxman’s batting will say that he batted even better between 2006 and 2010, where, as a number six, he produced some incredible innings and rallied the lower-order with him to ensure India won many more Tests than they may have, without him.

At 32, Laxman found a new direction to his career and in those five years, stroked seven Test hundreds and played some other magical innings such as the ones in Perth (2008), Mohali (2010) and Durban (2010).

In Laxman, Rahul has an example to consider on how to go about resurrecting his career as a Test batter. If anything, he even has an added advantage considering that India’s current lower-order is as strong as it has ever been, unlike during Laxman’s time when he needed to guide them, by ensuring they were comfortable in the middle and could hang around with him.

December will mark 10 years since Rahul debuted for India in the white flannels and incidentally, if there is continuous backing for him within the management, he could find himself in Australia once again, facing the likes of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.

Only, however, it could be with maybe the second or third new ball and not the first new ball. It remains to be seen if he carves a niche for himself, in a new avatar and finds a 2.0 version of himself in the land where it all started for him.

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