Barring a half-century against Afghanistan in the one-off Test in Bengaluru in June 2018 and the knock of 149 against England at The Oval in September 2018, KL Rahul has had an average run in Test cricket since the start of 2018. With 559 runs in 25 innings, the Indian opener’s average is just a touch over 23 in the aforementioned period, and the frustrating aspect is that he has made promising starts in several of those innings but has failed to convert them into a noteworthy performance.
Even in the ongoing Test series against West Indies, Rahul started off well in both the innings of the first Test in Antigua but ended up with scores of 44 and 38, extending his tally of double-digit scores of less than 50 to 20 in the 58 innings that he has played for India so far, with eight of those scores being in the 30-49 region.
Rahul, who spoke after the third day’s play of the Antigua Test, expressed his disappointment over not being able to optimise his starts despite doing most things right and stressed on the need to bat for more deliveries that could help him get better scores going forward in his Test career.
“(I’m) very disappointed,” said Rahul, who addressed the press conference at the end of Day 3. “But there are a lot of things I’m doing right, lot of positives too. I just have to keep my head down and show some more patience. I just have to prolong the good things I’m doing till I get to 35 or 45. I’ve been batting well, I’ve looked comfortable in both the innings, my head space and everything is very good. I’m happy about a lot of things, just if I can keep my patience and keep batting the way I do in the first 60-80 balls, if I continue to do that for 200-250 balls then it’ll obviously benefit me and the team. That’s what I’ll look to do next match.
Rahul, who showcased his abilities as an opener with a knock of 110 during his debut Test series in Australia, had a disappointing outing the next time India went there as he ended up with scores of 2, 44, 2, 0 and 9. While calling it a challenging phase that most batsmen experience, Rahul felt there was nothing wrong with his technique but more about confidence and getting runs under the belt.
“Technique and everything is over-rated – when you get runs everything looks good. So it was important for me to spend time in the middle, I never felt that there was anything drastically wrong with my technique in Australia,” he said. “It was just one of those phases that every batsman goes through. When you are in that phase it’s challenging to get out but a great player will find his way out. That’s why going out and playing some practice games, India A games and getting some runs under my belt did well for my confidence and I could go back and focus on getting runs more than why I was getting out and trying to dissect my technique or batting.”
