For the past two-and-a-half months, K.L. Rahul’s primary focus had been on striving to show through the IPL that he has evolved into a more purposeful T20 batter. Subjected to an avalanche of criticism in recent years for his relatively staid approach in the shortest format, a return of 539 runs in 13 matches at a strike rate of 149.72 this year, his highest since 2018, points to success in that endeavour. That Delhi Capitals flattered to deceive again is another matter. Barely had the dust settled on a long-drawn-out IPL campaign, though, that the 33-year-old has another point to prove. Which is to show that he can take on the mantle of being India’s senior-most batter when the marquee five-Test series against England gets underway at Headingley on June 20. It is a monumental responsibility that stares him in the face now that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, with a combined experience of 190 Tests and 13,531 runs, have retired. Ideal warm-up To ensure that his preparation is top-notch, Rahul is doing his bit. He dashed to the United Kingdom of his own accord prior to the Test squad’s official departure from Mumbai on June 6. With India-A’s second four-day game against England Lions at Northampton kicking off on that day, he was immediately in the thick of the action, taking guard against a brand new Dukes ball under overcast skies on a grass-laden strip that was difficult to distinguish from the lush outfield. And he made the most of the precious time in the middle, easing his way to a serene 116 off 168 deliveries on the opening day of the contest. In the second innings as well, Rahul made merry with a brisk half-century. With Chris Woakes, who is likely to helm England’s pace attack in the opening Test, extracting a fair degree of swing in the first dig, the fallibility of the other top-order batters — namely Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Karun Nair — was in marked contrast to the compactness of Rahul. During the course of his century, which saw him chew up more than four hours at the crease, the opening batter exhibited all the tenets that are of essence to batting in Tests in England. He played late and close to his body, demonstrating astute judgment in letting a vast majority of deliveries outside off-stump pass through to the wicketkeeper. Barring a loose drive that went to the left of first slip when he was on 63, there was hardly an errant stroke until he nicked medium-pacer George Hill to second slip in the 62nd over of the innings. By batting for as long as he did, Rahul managed to get an intimate view of Woakes and rookie seamer Josh Tongue (both are part of England’s main squad). For him to particularly deny Woakes, who claimed three scalps on his return from an ankle injury, a psychological edge going into a long and arduous Test series could be significant in the weeks to follow. “Rahul played really well. It was a very good hundred on a wicket that did a bit all day,” was Woakes’ assessment at the end of the first day’s play. Senior statesman It sets up Rahul nicely for a potentially defining phase of his Test career. With 58 Tests under his belt since the baptism by fire against Australia in the Boxing Day Test of 2014, the man from Karnataka is now very much the elder statesman who has to guide the cohort of young Indian batters through this phase of transition. To do that, he will have to firstly ensure that his own performances go up a few notches. Despite having the class and composure that separates the wheat from the chaff, Rahul’s Test career has meandered along for the best part of a decade. In 101 innings in whites for India, he has accrued 3257 runs at an average of 33.57 with just eight hundreds. If he is still extremely pivotal to India succeeding in England, it is because he can churn out runs away from home. As many as seven of his eight three-figure scores, after all, have been amassed outside India. He is arguably India’s most technically sound batter right now, and has the capability of digging in for long periods and grinding down bowling attacks in hostile conditions. Rahul’s robust technique was put in place at a very early age, and it was only much later, with the advent of the IPL and the rising emphasis on T20 cricket, that he expanded his range of strokeplay. “If you speak to cricketers I grew up with, like Karun and Mayank Agarwal, they will tell you that I couldn’t hit a six till I was 20 or 21,” he told former England captain Nasser Hussain in an interview with Sky Sports in April. “I was branded as a red-ball cricketer early in my career. Playing defensively came naturally to me. There was more red-ball cricket when I was growing up. A lot of the early coaching that I went through was about keeping the ball along the ground, leaving a lot of deliveries and playing in the V.” Some of these attributes were on show in the five-Test series against Australia Down Under at the end of last year. Against an unyielding bowling attack that had all bases covered, Rahul was zen-like while notching up scores of 77 and 84 in Perth and Melbourne. But as the tour progressed, Rahul tapered off, emblematic of a career that has at once enthralled and exasperated. The ambiguity around his batting position during the series, a running theme through his career, may not have helped. Having settled for a middle-order role in the past couple of years, he was asked to open the batting in the first Test owing to Rohit’s unavailability for the birth of his second child. Rahul excelled with a contribution of 77 in the second innings, and stayed there for two more Tests before sliding down to No. 3 in Melbourne to accommodate Rohit’s preference to return as opener. When the India skipper decided to drop himself for the finale in Sydney, Rahul was again back…
