ENG vs IND: KL Rahul overcomes poor run of form and lights up Lord's after warming bench for long

KL Rahul has had an interesting journey for a talent like him as far as his international career is concerned. When he set the stage on fire in limited-overs and in the IPL for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), he seemed a player who could India's search for an all-format player as he looked compact at the crease and his technique was pleasing to the eyes.

Forever in Lord's history 

A wonderful performance comes to an end.

Well batted, @klrahul11 #LoveLords | #ENGvIND

— Lord's Cricket Ground (@HomeOfCricket) August 13, 2021

Thus, the natural progression was to Test cricket and he made his debut in 2014 in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG. The then young 22-year old against a crowd of more than 50,000 roaring people and a bowling attack comprising Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon and Ryan Harris. He looked in way too much hurry for a player, who has so much time with him.

The debut at MCG

His poor returns of 3 and 1 seemed to suggest the [progression happened too early and the questions were raised, but he wasn't the talking point as it was MS Dhoni's last Test. Rahul kept his place in the final Test of the series and Shikhar Dhawan was axed. 

Playing at his favourable position - opening - Rahul looked in his elements. He played the ball on its merit, left when it had to be, took his time and justified all the talks around. Rahul brought up his maiden century in Test matches, in just his second game, ended up scoring 110 in the first innings, in a knock that lasted 262 balls. It was a lot considering he was looking to get a boundary of every ball in the eight balls he played in his first-ever innings in Test matches.

The dip in form

He became a regular feature despite a few back and fourths in the Test side. But then came a blip and it extended for a long period, longer than one would have expected. Rahul averaged 31.5, 59.9 and 48.7 in 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively and everything was going well until the South Africa tour in early 2018.

With scores of 10, 4, 0 and 16 in the four innings, it felt like this might just be a phase as he was too good a player to stay out of form. However, the period just kept on going. He scored just one fifty - against Afghanistan - and one hundred - a 149 at Oval against England - in a total of 22 innings in that year, with 11 scores of less than 20.

If that wasn't great, it was going to get worse for Rahul as he played just 5 innings in 2019 with scores of 9, 44, 38, 13 and 6 and was later axed from the side after the West Indies tour. He just looked completely out of sorts and felt in a sort of, discomfort at the crease. When a technically sound batsman starts looking like that, there's a problem somewhere.

The recall

After which he featured in just one first-class game for Karnataka, before he was recalled into the Test side for the series in the place where he made his debut, he lost his form when he came four years later and was returning there on the back of a splendid IPL scoring 670 runs and a successful run in the white-ball formats, whether at No 5 in ODIs or opening in the T20Is.

He warmed benches in the first two games before a wrist injury cut short his tour and he returned. He was selected for the home series against England and didn't get a single game there too. With COVID-19 becoming a sad reality, teams have to take 20-plus members for long tours especially and Rahul was retained in the squad but as far as making the playing XI was concerned, he was far far behind.

The opportunity

However, an opportunity came in form of injuries to the other two first-choice openers. Shubman Gill was ruled out, Mayank Agarwal was concussed and KL Rahul was the next best option. A 100 in the warm-up game against County Select XI may also have worked a tad bit in his favour.

And boy, wasn't he waiting for an opportunity like that. It didn't feel like he was averaging 17.7 in his last 12 Test innings or he hasn't played a Test match in two years. It seemed a very fish to the water situation as the bat flow, the timing, and most importantly the judgement was back. He was leaving a bit more, his head was very straight, was watching the ball till the very last minute and soft hands were the key.

 Scenes as @klrahul11 returns to the dressing room after his brilliant * on Day 1 of the Lord's Test. #TeamIndia #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/vY8dN3lU0y

— BCCI (@BCCI) August 13, 2021

The exquisite drives through the covers or the exemplary flicks were back as this was an 84, that he would have been mighty proud of. The channel outside the off-stump came to his undoing in the second innings as he could muster only 26 runs. But he had ensured that he would be keeping his place even if Mayank Agarwal was fit, who is currently in a similar situation of warming benches but no fault for his as he hasn't played a Test since the Gabba game when he batted at No 6.

That's how you make it count

Back to Rahul, all of his specialties were on display at the Lord's in the second Test but only better. It was an interesting innings progression, it almost felt like one of his T20 innings, where he holds one end for 15 overs and then explodes. So, for the first half of the day, he let Rohit Sharma go all guns blazing and he was happy to play the second fiddle. But the acceleration beast that he is was back.

What an innings!

Test century No.6 for KL Rahul #WTC23 | #ENGvIND | https://t.co/rhWT86mZ0z pic.twitter.com/wTsKAdNuqX

— ICC (@ICC) August 12, 2021

Rahul was on just 17 when Rohit was on 81. Rohit struggled in the latter part of his innings scoring just two runs in the next 33 balls and Rahul was on 33 in the blink of an eye. Rohit departed, and Rahul added the next 18 runs off just 19 balls as he slammed his 13th Test half-century, but he knew he had to make a big one after missing out in the first Test and he did.

He played the ball on merit and didn't look puzzled. He was very sure of what he was doing, what he wanted to do as he had overcome the difficult periods, now he just needed to make sure, he was there till the end of the day and he was.

Rahul notched up his sixth Test century, second in England, fourth outside Asia and first at the iconic Lord's Cricket Ground. It was kind of a fairytale for Rahul, getting an opportunity under unusual circumstances but all marks to him for grabbing it with both hands. He was dismissed for 129 but a name in golden words at the Lord's Honours board, that's something.

Soon to be etched in Gold! #TeamIndia | #ENGvIND | @klrahul11 https://t.co/NB5N81OjT1

— BCCI (@BCCI) August 12, 2021

Rahul needed a new lease of life to get back into the Test set-up. IPL gave him that, but not a place in the XI. A bit of luck and he made it count by playing an innings by an Indian opener on the English shores for the ages.