2018

KL Rahul's turnaround in IPL 2018. Image src: IndExpress

KL Rahul exchanged t-shirt with Pandya. He is the new-age in-your-eye player with oozles of talent. Yet, you feel he hasn't lived up to the talent he has.

KL Rahul's career has had many ups and downs, and he is barely 26 year old. Here is his journey, broken down into the waves of his careers. And Australia has had a huge role in his journey so far. Here is how:

The big miss and the turnaround(2010-2013)

Australian summer of 2010.
6 matches. 143 runs. An average of 28. Strike Rate of 69.

KL Rahul's batting at the 2010 U-19 World Cup didn't grab eyeballs. His U-19 WC mates didn't make it big too. 8 years later, only Mandeep Singh, Ashok Menaria, Mayank Agarwal and Sandeep Sharma are well-known. His talent was well known in the age-level cricket circles in Karnataka. But the World Cup failed to be his limelight moment. India failed at the WC too. Josh Hazlewood had emerged from the young Australian team of 2010 that won the cup. The fast energetic bowler, the partner-in-crime of Starc.

As Hazlewood made strides in Sheffield, Rahul did too.

A prolific 2013-14 domestic season turned the tide, for good. He scored 1033 runs for Karnataka, and played some terrific strokes in the defining Ranji season. 2013 gave him his first IPL cap for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. It was also the year in which the big innings of 185 at Duleep Trophy came. All this had finally started to take shape for KL. And then came the big national call. For the test team touring Australia.

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Best thing to happen to Indian cricket since Kohli (2014-2016)

It began in Australia again.

Four years later, the same country awaited his next big test. His debut test was marked by a couple of careless shots that ended his stay immediately both the times. A impatient sweep off Lyon ballooned up in the air, and Hazlewood catched it. The two men from U-19 WC 2010 had crossed paths again. Rahul top-edged Johnson in the second innings too. A spate of careless shots meant his record after debut test read: 2 innings 4 runs.

Sent in to open in the next test, Rahul made a statement. Something had changed from Melboune to Sydney. He scored 110, in an innings that was highlighted by many graceful shots, full of youthful exuberance. Aptly, he made a big partnership with Kohli, who scored 147 himself. In a way, it was symbolic of his being the best thing to happen to Indian cricket since Kohli.

Shortly after, he became the first Karnataka batsman to score a triple century in first-class cricket. The third rendezvous with Australia at the 2015 didn't happen, as Rahul hadn't bursted on the ODI circuit yet. The opportunity came in 2016 when India toured Zimbabwe. Rahul joined a list of elite players to score debut in their first ODI, and was the first Indian to make the list. Later in the year, he became the second Indian batsman to score centuries in all formats after Suresh Raina. The 46-ball hundred against West Indies in 2016 is till date the fastest T20i hundred by an Indian.

Till then, he had a knack. Either he made a 100, or fell cheaply. The 50s to 100s conversion ratio was very high.
The performance box had a big check.The consistency box wasn't yet checked.

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2017-A start and stop year

A shoulder injury against England changed things for KL Rahul. He was forced to miss the IPL and the Champions Trophy thereafter. The second-half of 2017 was a welcome return as Rahul hit 6 consecutive half centuries in tests marked another side of KLR- the consistency.It also meant he had started to forget the art of conversion of 50s to 100s, something he had done perfectly right till 2016.

The ODI fortunes turned the other way, as his poor ODI form culminated in him being dropped for the Australia series. This time again, it was Australia. As his stocks in test cricket went up, his ODI stocks came crashing down. For many reasons, 2017 became a start-stop year for the Karnataka cricketer.

As of now, his ODI Ranking is 153, and his average a modest 35 with one century so far.

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2018- IPL and the turnaround

The poor ODI form meant RCB didn't retain the talented batsman and Punjab grabbed him. The turnaround began. As of 18th May, KL Rahul held the orange cap in IPL 2018 with 652 runs to his name. In a tournament meant for the fireworks, he found the consistency enriched with gracious stroke play and panache. As Punjab stand on the verge of qualification/disqualification with the last few league games in way, KL Rahul has almost single-handedly carried Punjab's batting on his shoulders.A jaw-dropping 95 against RR wasn't enough to take his home through to a win that night. Aptly, his orange-cap performance might not be enough to take Punjab to the title. One-man armies often fall by the wayside, telling us again how cricket is a team game.

With India slated to tour England, Australia and a lot more this year, Rahul would hope to became the all-season player he emerged as. Probably, an Australian tour will change things again. And perhaps, Hazlewood will cross paths again.

Dhawan gets out a short ball, again. Image courtesy- Cricinfo, BCCI

Rohit Sharma's test career was in similar boat as Yuvraj Singh's was, few years back. Brilliant in ODIs and floundering in tests, especially in conditions where bowlers had help. Guptill, too, would nod in agreement.

At the fag end of 2017, Rohit Sharma got another look-in in tests, after Karun Nair had been dropped from squad failing to follow up after the triple ton. Rohit grabbed his chance. At home, he hit a spate of half centuries in perfect conditions for batting, coming at a situation when India were comfortably placed, with runs on board and probably pondering over declaration on nice comfortable batting tracks. This made Kohli give Rohit a preference over Rahane in South Africa, the seasoned middle order bat and the vice-captain of Indian test team. Rahane had a brief drop in form against touring SL, but his away record in testing conditions makes him one of the first choice batsman in this squad.

And Rahane was dropped. For Rohit Sharma. In SA.

Result? 21 runs in 2 innings in Capetown. 21 runs overall in 148 balls.LBW in first innings, bowled by playing on in second. In question comes the foot movement. And he walks back to the pavillion, where Rahane is sitting.

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Shikhar Dhawan has been a lucky man. A man who knows how to grab his chances when holding by a thread. He made a late entry in the squad, in which he was initially dropped, against SL in SL, and scored a big ton to stake his claim. From being fourth choice opener in the squad, he made it to eleven and then scored a daddy ton to win confidence of his captain. He continued to do so in ODIs and tests against SL. That "earned" him a place ahead of the far talented and better technically equipped KL Rahul. Thrown into adverse conditions, he edged and tried to manufacture square of the wicket shots and eventually fell to short balls twice in Capetown.

Result? 32 runs in 2 innings- unconvincing edges and reluctant bat movements. As an opener. In SA. Cardinal sin.

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Both of the mistakes were made in selection.
Both were similar.
Both involved picking players based on very recent form against a weak opposition at home.
Both involved hoping to translate ODI success of a couple of players to tests.
Both batsmen failed completely.

Did Kohli learn?
Did the selectors learn to use Ranji as criteria for test selection and not ODIs?

Did India miss the Capetown win due to bad selection?

No one knows. But the thought process is frustrating. It will lead to a bad example setting. There are players in Ranji grinding season by season to go in tests. The selection system made us lose Capetown. It's time we wake up before too many Capetowns go away.