It’s not likely to stick in memory, it might not even have been noticed in the first place, but the Indian takeaway from Perth on a sumptuous second day was served by KL Rahul. It was his carefully-curated walks half-way down the pitch to chat with his Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Nearly every time his younger partner had a little dalliance with danger – a flashy drive, an ambitious cut, predetermined sashay down the track, Rahul would begin his walk. Head down, the bat tapping the turf, he would say something until he reached mid-way. Often, Jaiswal would walk to join him, nod his head, and retreat to cut out any unnecessary frills from his game for the next phase. Small little things, but Tests are often lost, if not won, due to those lapses.
Jaiswal, on an unbeaten 90, and Rahul, batting on 62, sealed such errors in judgement responsibly to gradually push India on the ascendancy, after they had bowled out Australia for 104 at stroke of lunch to take a first-innings lead of 46. The overall lead had swelled to 218 by stumps and as the two tapped each other’s gloves as they walked away, Virat Kohli, who had come on to the arena to take some throw downs, tapped his bat that was held aloft in acknowledgement of their splendid achievement.
The spider camera began to descend often and come closer to the ground often near the end of play as the broadcasters wanted to give a glimpse of the pitch to hint at what awaits us. The cracks hadn’t opened up as yet though variable bounce had come into play near the end, and if India play their cards smartly on Day 3, they can ensure Australia bat in more trying circumstances.
India’s Yashasvi Jaiswal, right, and teammate KL Rahul run between the wickets on the second day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth, Australia, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. AP/PTI(
Not that counselling his younger team-mate was his chief contribution. He was India’s best top-order batsman in the first innings where the stand-out feature was his precise, and confident, forward stride. For a man who has been criticised a lot in recent times, someone who has been shuffled around the order as if he were pack of cards and who doesn’t get the stature of a batsman playing his 54th Test, the way he constructed his second-innings knock and assessed the situation and his partner’s urges was splendid.
The forward stride was there all right, but his leaves were more note-worthy on Saturday. He played the line, rarely chased the ball, had control over his hands that has at times betrayed him in the past, and was immensely patient. So much so that his patience perhaps rubbed on Jaiswal, who made his slowest Test fifty (off 123 balls) of his career. Near the end of the day, when Jaiswal pressed down on the accelerator to ensure the tiring Aussies were put to the sword, Rahul didn’t intervene. It was the first 150+ opening stand by a visiting team in Australia since 2010, and it has all the makings of a match-winning partnership.
Until it started to increasingly show more variable bounce – a Starc length delivery shot under Jaiswal’s bat, while another delivery shot up to hit the gloves, the threat from the pitch was tight channel bowling from the Aussies, and of course the new ball. Here is where Rahul’s compactness helped him wear the bowlers down. In his bad days, he can at times get stuck at the crease, but with his serene stride, half his problems with the judgement of the off stump and relatively still head over the ball were sorted out. For the rest, his patience proved a boon.
Australia kept pressing on a track that didn’t aid much seam movement with disciplined lines and lengths but he thwarted them. Then occasionally they would resort to attempting to bluff him: in the middle of the over, Hazlewood would send a man out to deepish square-leg, halfway from the boundary, but not bowl the short ball. Instead deliveries in the off-stump channel would continue but a ready Rahul would leave them. Nathan Lyon had a short third man in place, presumably for a reverse-sweep, and Rahul never indulged. In this kind of mood, he wasn’t likely to do it until he did finally play one reverse sweep to that fielder, all along the ground but. He allowed the bouncers to sail past and continued to show impeccable shot-selection.
When Cummins pushed one fuller, Rahul unfurled a gorgeous straight drive. Mitch Marsh’s short balls were pulled and cut, and Starc’s delivery with width was creamed through cover point, but they were few and far between.
It’s his frequent walks down the track to calm, guide, remind, and nudge Jaiswal that would stand out. Together, they have shepherded India to a position of strength, but we have already seen enough in recent times not to presume what is to come.
His friend and former Ranji team-mate David Mathias once told this newspaper about Rahul’s favourite movie in the years gone by: The Batman – Dark Knight Returns. “We saw that three times in the theatre. We were so taken up that we pulled out other Batman movies and saw all of them.” The Batman would get inked on Rahul’s flesh. “Of all the tattoos he has, he was most excited and proud to show that Batman tattoo”.
The tattoo has a line from that movie – ‘Deshi Basara! (It means ‘Rise’). It’s an apt summary of his somewhat strange career too: and with this matured responsible senior statesman like knock in Perth, The Dark Knight has indeed returned and risen. And so has India, from the depths of 150 all out.
