From KL to Rahul bhai – Indian opener finds his Zen mode in England
From being ‘KL’ to Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, he now is the ‘big brother’ that this young team calls him ‘Rahul bhai.’ (AP Photo)
The question before the series was whether KL Rahul was a consistently good batsman or a batsman who just played good knocks. It was something that bothered the batsman too. Few days before this Test, he would bump into his one-time team mate Cheteshwar Pujara and share with him his goals for this England tour. Rahul wanted to convert his good starts into great hundreds.
Words can follow but the numbers rest Rahul’s case. The Indian opener’s scoring sequence in the forgettable Australia tour was – 26, 77, 37, 7, 84, 4*, 24, 0, 4, 13. In England it has been – 42, 137, 2, 55, 100. From just two 50s in 5 Tests, Rahul has 2 hundreds and 1 fifty in two Tests here. Now, it seems he is a good batsman with good knocks. India’s new senior-most batsman is doing what seniors are supposed to be doing.