While the majority of Indian batters surrendered to the South African pacers on the opening day of the Boxing Day Test, it was KL Rahul who held the fort. The likes of Kagiso Rabada and Nandre Burger were yelling at the SuperSport Park, collectively picking up 7 Indian wickets, but they couldn’t breach Rahul’s defence the entire day.
Returning to the longest format after 10 months, Rahul was handed a brand new role in the playing XI. Unlike his previous outing against Australia in Delhi in February, the Karnataka batter got shifted to middle-order as he filled in for wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan who opted out of the series citing personal reasons. And the change in batting order did wonders for the team.
A couple of years after scoring a century in Centurion, Rahul was back here with another classic knock. By the end of the day, he had faced 105 deliveries and scored 70 runs with the help of 10 boundaries and a couple of sixes.
Former captains Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri didn’t hold themselves from showering praises on Rahul.
Ravi Shastri amazed
Former head coach Ravi Shastri, who has seen Rahul from close quarters, was amazed to see the way Rahul carried out his innings on the tricky Centurion track.
“He has made batting look easy. When you look at his footwork and the balance, it was pretty amazing. The knock also shows that the number is right for him in Test match cricket. I think he will get a lot of runs for India in the middle order,” Shastri had said on air.
Gavaskar praises the ‘different Rahul’
Batting legend Gavaskar reckoned that this was the version of Rahul that world cricket has been yearning to see for a long time.
“We’ve known about his talent for such a long time, but we are getting to see it in the last eight, nine months, ever since he’s come back from this horrific injury that he had in the IPL, it’s a different Rahul. It’s a Rahul that we have been yearning to see for such a long time and such a delight to see. I said it in commentary as well that this half-century to me, is as good as a century,” Gavaskar told Star Sports.
The former captain recalled how Rahul was struggling to get runs before the injury break, adding that the Karnataka batter has now become ‘undroppable’ since his return in the Asia Cup 2023.
“Earlier on, he used to seem a little bit lost. He’s not lost now. He’s there, very much there. And that tells you the way he’s approaching batting that century at the Asia Cup, that first game was a very good century.
“You could say lucky that Shreyas Iyer did hurt his back and so he got an opportunity to get into the XI. But that’s what you need in life. You need a bit of luck, but then you need to grab that with both hands. And that’s what he’s done. And now he’s made himself undroppable in all three formats,” he added.
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