Middle-order man KL Rahul showcases his versatility

A Star Sports teaser for an interview with KL Rahul, aired during the Boxing Day lunch break, caught the eye as much as the hectic on-field action on a pitch loaded heavily in the favour of the fast bowlers. In the teaser, Rahul seemed to be talking of the mental and emotional toll criticism has taken on him over the years. He seemed to be talking calmly but what he said still sounded raw. "I couldn't get out of my own head," he said at one point.

Only once the entire interview is aired will it be know if Rahul was talking about criticism from experts or online abuse. Either way, we sometimes assume too readily that professional cricketers are all trained to effectively block out unnecessary noise. Some of them cannot block it out, even when it is not well-informed and rigorous criticism.

Besides, batting is such a capricious activity, it hardly needs outside help to drive its practitioners up the wall. Especially in conditions in which Rahul has often played Test cricket. While his average of 33 in 47 Tests (not counting this one) attracts raised eyebrows, the openers in Tests involving Rahul have averaged only 31. He spent two years out starting in 2019, and his stellar comeback in 2021 lasted all of 11 Tests, which included two superlative series in England and South Africa.

The ups and downs of batting were on full display on day one of a yet another Rahul comeback. Rohit Sharma kept out good lengths before he found the one man in the deep with his favourite shot, the pull. He had middled the shot. Had it actually bounced higher - and thus been tougher to negotiate in theory - it would have cleared the fielder. Shubman Gill gloved one down the leg side even as the inexperienced South Africa struggled to find the full length.

When Shreyas Iyer and Virat Kohli counterattacked, they enjoyed luck through dropped chances but both got unplayable deliveries from a fired-up Kagiso Rabada, who has single-handedly kept South Africa in the contest. Despite occasional luck on an otherwise unlucky day - lost toss, unexpected movement both horizontally and vertically, the nature of the dismissals - India found themselves at 107 for 5, soon to be 121 for 6.

What a day then for Rahul to extend the batting line-up by agreeing to and wanting to keep wicket in Rishabh Pant's absence. He has done this only once before in his first-class career. The physical toll it takes on someone not used to that kind of workload is immense, but Rahul would rather the physical toll than the mental one of sitting out. Team managements have also tried their best to have him on the park because he is too good to not be so.

At the risk of indulging in some pop psychology, this scenario seems to be the perfect place for Rahul to be. It is clear by now that he is good enough to approach batting in many different ways and in all formats, which can sometimes give him too many options when he is beginning on a clean slate, when he has to set the tone at the top of the order. In the middle order, he has to purely react to situations. Even if you zoom out a little, when he has no choice but to do something specific to be in the side, that seems to work out better for him as we have seen in the shift to the middle order in the ODIs.

Today, reacting purely to the uneven bounce, the sideways movement and the match situation, Rahul probably made one out and out mistake in a 105-ball stay for an unbeaten 70. Early on in his innings, he reacted instinctively to extra bounce and tried to hook from well outside off, and missed by a mile. After that, he did play and miss - it is impossible not to do so in these conditions - but hardly made any judgement errors.

Immediately after that failed hook, he was presented another lifter. This one, though, was at his body and not as high. He still backed his shot given the ball was in the right area, and kept it down beautifully.

The way South Africa were bowling, the first session was mostly about surviving Rabada and the debutant Nandre Burger. The others provided scoring opportunities too regularly. India were unlucky they couldn't see off Rabada's spell post-lunch without damage, but Rahul made sure he kept South Africa's inexperienced support cast under pressure.

Rahul managed to hit a boundary every nine balls, and offered false response every 4.77 balls on a day that errors were committed every 3.64 balls overall. Batting with the lower order only freed him up more. The pitch anyway called for an attacking approach because pure survival was not easy.

"He did what he does actually," India's batting coach Vikram Rathour said after the day's play. "He is turning out to be the man for crises for us. Every time there are tough situations, most of the times he's there. He's the guy who handles those situations very well."

India were quietly confident Rahul had carried them to a good total for the conditions. If he somehow manages to add 30 to his overnight score, Rahul will have scored a staggering six out of eight centuries outside Asia. He is a man who scored a 14-ball half-century when opening in T20s, and also had arguably his best IPL season batting in the middle order. He has bossed ODIs both as an opener and as a wicketkeeper-batter in the middle order. In different kinds of difficult conditions, he had waited 108 balls for his first boundary in England and today hit 12 boundaries in 105 balls.

Carrying out a craft whose practitioners tend to compulsively hang on to routines and batting positions, Rahul has now been successful in two completely different roles in all three formats. He is, quite simply, India's most versatile batter of his time. He just needs to do it for long enough now. At 31, he has the time on his side.