29. 45. 23. 13. 11. 20. 1. 19*. 24. 1. 12. 44. 20.
Those are his most recent Test scores, and they make for pitiful reading. He has looked unsure at the top, and visibly vulnerable against certain types of bowlers. It wasn’t always like this — there was a time when he used to hit memorable 100s all over the world, but he’s completely lost form now, and some people believe this could be the end.
Everyone and their uncle has an opinion on KL Rahul’s place in the India side — experts, former players, armchair critics and generic online columnists such as yours truly have all weighed in with their takes. It’s an issue that has divided India. It has forced good-natured, mild-mannered men such as Venkatesh Prasad and Aakash Chopra to turn on each other. Funnily, while the whole country is debating a selection matter, the selection committee itself is without a figurehead, now that Chetan Sharma has been sting-operationed out of his job.
Inconsistency has cost Rahul his Test place in the past. Has he run out of the long rope once again, or is he clutching at its very end? We will only know when India announce their playing XI for the Indore Test on March 1. But frankly, does it matter? One extra Test for Rahul, with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy already in the bag, perhaps doesn’t make a difference in the larger scheme of things. But when have we let logic come in the way of a debate! With the touring Australians imploding comically, we have all been forced to turn inward for our fix of cricket masala, and poor Rahul finds himself in the crosshairs.
This piece will steer clear of controversy and conjecture, but will present the facts as they are in the KL Rahul casefiles.
It’s fair to say that Rahul has been one of the most frustrating cricketers to play for India. His career graph features massive, high-impact hundreds, interspersed with several low scores and soft dismissals. His fans will point to his centuries in Australia, England (twice), South Africa, West Indies and Sri Lanka. In between-times, he also carried India’s misfiring batting when they defeated Australia at home in 2017. Yet, for all those highs, his Test average is a pitiable 33.4 after 47 Tests.
Rahul’s detractors have pointed at other batters who got much fewer chances to fail before being shown the door in Test cricket. Before Rahul there was Mayank Agarwal, who was dropped despite having two 200s and a 150 and an average over 41. Before Agarwal, there was Murali Vijay who was axed after a short but sharp decline, following years of high performance. In the middle order, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara were let go, albeit after being given reasonably long ropes. Pujara has since worked his way back into the side.
The Rahul conundrum has hit Indian Test cricket at a particularly tricky time. Indian Test cricket is going through the best of times, and simultaneously the worst of times. They are the No.1 side in the world, and have been so for a while — Bazball-inspired England are the only competition. India are set for a second successive WTC final, back-ending an era when they have been unbeatable at home and very effective away.
A lot of this dominance is down to great bowling, a solid lower middle order, and Rohit Sharma’s brilliance at the top. The rest of India’s batting has been AWOL for a worryingly long time — Kohli, Pujara, Rahane, and to a lesser extent Vijay endured simultaneous slumps. It takes a lot for Indian selectors to actually drop veteran cricketers, but this run was so bad that even they blinked and let go of three of them. In the same period, they also had to let go of Shikhar Dhawan from the one-day set up — another decorated top-order batter.
Perhaps they are conscious of dropping too many established names at the same time — and maybe that has worked in Rahul’s favour?
Over the years, the selectors have not handed out debuts too easily, and when they have, they have backed their players for a reasonable amount of time. Players are supported through lean runs, and given enough opportunities to discover or rediscover their groove. And hence, the endorsements that Rahul has received from his captain and coach in public are features, and not bugs.
Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja may be superstars now, but a few years back, they were exactly where Rahul finds himself today. Their failures caused outrage, and they eventually became meme-material, while the selectors were pilloried for backing them. Those selection committees — and the India selection process — stand vindicated by how far these two players have soared since. Rohit and Jadeja had something in them that convinced the team management and the selectors that they would eventually come good. Maybe they see the same in Rahul — something that we fans don’t notice too easily. On the flipside, the issue with Rahul is that he’s almost 31 and time is running out.
Given the volume of cricket being played these days, a player is only as good as his last week at the game. Last year and this one both feature white-ball World Cups, and lots of India’s recent assignments have been in those formats. Rahul endured two poor T20 World Cups, and has paid for them with his place in the T20 side. India’s selectors have recently been guilty of using Test form to pick their limited-overs side, but you cannot accuse them of the reverse. Yet, formats and personas tend to meld in public perception, and a lot of people asking for Rahul’s head in Tests will not recall that he scored match-winning centuries at Lord’s and Centurion in India’s last two big overseas Test assignments.
So, we have an out-of-form Rahul desperately short of runs, oozing class and an X-factor that only the selectors and the team management can see. Are they being too kind to him? Or should them dump him and give someone else a go — Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Priyank Panchal are all worthy replacements.
When gut-feel and qualitative analysis don’t help us reach a conclusion, maybe, we should take refuge in the cold, hard, comfort of numbers. Let’s revisit that string of scores we saw at the top.
29. 45. 23. 13. 11. 20. 1. 19*. 24. 1. 12. 44. 20.
Surely not the run of scores befitting a top order batter in the world No. 1 team? It’s time to let him go, and find another player, isn’t it? Are you sure? Ok then. So long, well played, thanks for all the fish, and all that.
You, dear reader, just failed Indian cricket’s Rorschach test. For that string of scores don’t belong to Rahul. They belong to his team-mate who bats at No. 4 for India.
You, dear reader, just dropped Virat Kohli.
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