KL Rahul can excel in limited-overs too

Among the array of superstars in the Royal Challengers Bangalore batting line-up that have set the stage afire with their jaw-dropping knocks, there has been one guy who has silently gone about his business with aplomb.

KL Rahul might not have scored century after century like Virat Kohli scores. Neither would he have played a miraculous knock like AB de Villiers plays nor belted sixes out of the park like Chris Gayle does, but the 24-year-old has played an integral part in RCB's terrific run this season.

The Bangalore boy has scored 386 runs in 13 outings at an average of 48.25. More commendably, he has adjusted to whatever the team has demanded of him. When Gayle wasn't available for a few games, Rahul was asked to open with Kohli, and he shone there, almost feeling at home facing the new ball. But even when he was pushed down the order to accommodate Gayle, Rahul played crucial knocks to take his team out of a hole.

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Why, he even kept wickets.

But the biggest highlight of Rahul this IPL season has been his ability to adjust to the requirements of T20 cricket. Ever since he broke into the Indian Test team in late 2014, Rahul was perceived as just a Test player, someone who couldn't quite get going from the first ball.

Rahul was itching to change that mindset of the people, and that hunger in his eyes reflected in how he went about his business this season. And, just like a cherry on the cake, he was rewarded with a berth in the India limited-overs squad for the upcoming Zimbabwe tour for the first time.

"You should tell me if the mindset has changed or not," Rahul quipped when asked him whether he was confident that he had changed the perception of the people.

"For me, there was never a doubt about my skills," he went on. "But obviously, I hadn't put in the same kind of performances in the previous years (in the IPL). I got the opportunity with RCB this year, and it was a franchise that I always wanted to play in. I thought I was prepared. I was ready."

His IPL performances in the last three years with the Sunrisers Hyderabad didn't make anyone stand up and take notice. Across those seasons, his strike rate averaged around 110, and he didn't score a single half-century.

This year, he struck four of them, and more importantly, batted at a strike rate of 147. He played sweeps, reverse sweeps, upper cuts et al.

The change in his game came about last year, when Rahul was down with injuries for a major part of the year. It gave him a chance to sit back and look closely at his limited-overs cricket.

"When I had the time off, I used that to sit back and watch a few videos from the previous years and see what I was doing wrong," Rahul said.

"But mostly, it has been a mental change and I've just gone out there and played with a lot of freedom. I've not thought too much about the game and too much about the results. I've just looked after playing my game, and I've realised what works best for me, and that is to play cricket shots. That's what I've done throughout the tournament and that's been the biggest secret this season," he added.

It's clear that Rahul is taking his shorter-format cricket very seriously. It might not come as a surprise if he becomes a regular in the Indian ODI and T20 teams as well in the years to come, apart from the Test team, especially when the selectors have asked him to take his wicketkeeping also seriously.

Rahul this IPL

Matches: 13
Innings: 11
Not out: 3
Runs: 386
Highest: 68*
Average: 48.25
Strike rate: 147.32
50s: 4
Catches: 5
Stumpings: 4