The Importance Of Being KL Rahul- Graceful Under Pressure, A Lender Of Calm Amid Volatility
KL Rahul slammed a flamboyant century in Centurion [AP]
There’s a real significance to a century each time it is struck by someone, irrespective of the weight the name carries or the inning in which it came. So when KL Rahul reached his most recent ton in the Centurion Test against South Africa, there was a sense of relief about the effort more than the weight of the statistical output.
Rahul has seen far better times in the middle, during which he’s raced to previous centuries. On this occasion, he was merely on 33 when his team lost its seventh wicket. The Indian team’s score of 164 looked as unsettling as the mood of a first-time investor making his way to the stock market.
Rohit, Virat, Gill; all of them gone with South Africa firmly in control; Kagiso Rabada had ensured that there would be no easy day for the visitors at the SuperSport Park.
But then, how apt, it ought to be asked, was the sight to regale the centurion in Indian colours who rose to the occasion at the Centurion?
In playing an inning of class, calibre and might, KL Rahul cemented his position in a Test line-up, which, truth be told, seemed a touch incomplete in his absence.
In some respect, all the criticism the watchful right-hander had copped up to this point seemed distant, as distant as that delivery pitched way outside the off to which he plays a nobody, someone who has got absolutely nothing to do with it.
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And that is where the Rahuls carve a niche for themselves, don’t they? Dravid did that with a volcanic appetite for run-scoring amid duress. KL is doing that, as we note, at a time where there’s pressure on the side, but maybe not that much focus on him as other, arguably saleable names that carry the whiff of a golden touch about them get more talked about.
Think Gill. Think Pant, who’ll be the epicentre of all cricketing discussion when he returns. That’s as if there were no Rohits or Virats in the Indian colours, all of whom we desperately need.
But then we need KL Rahul as well, who has created an air of ubiquity about his form ever since being subjected to constant scrutiny about it. He’s needed. Now. Very much so. And across formats.
For a batsman who is just a year over 30, KL Rahul is making more comebacks already than Jean Claude Van Damme in the martial arts film market.
Upon his recent injury, around a quarter of a year ago, KL Rahul smashed a priceless century in the Asia Cup. Who can forget that brilliant game in Sri Lanka?
Rahul played a brilliant knock [AP]
Chances are that 111 off 106 featured 12 boundaries and two sixes will be remembered as much for his hitting abilities as the opposition it came against: Pakistan.
Chances are, the timely hundred at the Centurion shall be lauded for the pressure it came against and the worth of the opposition it was scored against.
One doesn’t need to be a discerning cricket observer to note what India’s final frontier is. Over the years, South Africa has proven to be a real thorn in India’s path to winning a Test series.
There was a time when Donald, Pollock and Kallis were enormously hard. Then came the time of Morkel and Steyn. Now, as one notes, Rabada is oozing wildfire, and he’s doing it without the likes of Nortje, a cricketer who’s about as vital to his side as is Lokesh Rahul, the dependable to India.
The fact that the Test match has moved to what is arguably its most crucial moment, day 3, is significant as both teams look balanced with the hosts ahead but only just.
Consider this. Just where may India have been had one of its most underappreciated albeit stoic sons had not stepped up and when it was utterly needed?
Keep scoring KL Rahul. Remember, there’s another inning to go and after that, another brand new Test match.
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