Over the last couple of years, K. L. Rahul has been working with a specialist to help him with ‘improving reaction times’ by engaging in mental drills — something that top athletes involved in Formula One and adventure sports follow.
Rahul, in fact, travelled to Salzburg, Austria — the base of the Red Bull team in F1 — to work with the specialist who has also helped several F1 drivers previously.
And that has worked well for the India batter, who scored his second Test century at Lord’s on Saturday.
While he was happy to have reached the milestone, Rahul did not hesitate in admitting that his rush for the century ahead of Lunch led to Rishabh Pant’s run-out.
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At the stroke of Lunch, India was 247 for three. Rahul, batting on 98, was eager to get on strike and in the process, called for a tricky single after Pant defended a Shoaib Bashir delivery to the off-side.
Sensing Pant’s hesitation, Stokes ran in from covers, and a direct throw at the non-striker’s end brought curtains down on Pant’s gritty innings, battling pain. Soon after Lunch, Rahul brought up his 10th hundred, but fell to Bashir in the next delivery.
After the day’s play, Rahul revealed that he had told Pant of his plan to get to the century before the break, a couple of overs before Lunch. But that did not happen, and Pant tried his best to put Rahul on strike.
“There was a conversation a couple of overs before that: I told him (Pant) that I will get my hundred if possible before lunch. And with Bashir bowling that last over before Lunch, I thought there’s a good chance for me to get it, but, yeah, unfortunately, I hit straight to the fielder,” Rahul said.
“It was a ball that I could have hit for a boundary. Then he just wanted me to rotate strike and see if he could put me back on strike. But, yeah, it shouldn’t have happened: a run out at that stage really changed the momentum,” Rahul said, adding, “It was disappointing for both of us. Obviously, nobody wants to throw their wicket like that.”
Having suffered an index finger injury, it wasn’t easy for Pant to hang in there, but he rode on his natural game to build a strong partnership with Rahul.
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“He was in a lot of pain gripping the bat. When the ball hits your bat, there’s a lot of friction. He got hit on the gloves as well a couple of times, which was not ideal. He was in a lot of pain,” Rahul revealed.
“He kept telling me that he was missing out on a lot of balls that he felt should have gone for boundaries. He was very disappointed with that. I just had to tell him to weigh his options and see what the best shots he can score, like boundaries, rather than getting upset with the areas he can’t score off…”
Despite the pain, Pant eclipsed Vivian Richards’ record of most sixes (34) against England in Tests and entertained the crowd during his stay at the crease.
