KL Rahul, the senior Indian batsman, finally said on Wednesday that he has flipped the “mental challenge” of being a floater in the line-up and now ready to bat at any position as long as he gets to play for the team. Rahul was exceptional during the initial Test against Australia in that he scored 26 and 77 runs while opening up during the absence of a natural captain Rohit Sharma, who was away on paternity leave. With Rohit walking back into playing eleven for the day-night Test starting Friday, Rahul was asked the obvious question about his batting position.
“Anything (opening or middle order),” said the 32-year-old batter to reporters ahead of India’s training session here.
“I just want to be in the playing XI, which means wherever. You go there and bat and play for the team,” said the batter with more than 3000 runs in 54 Tests.
“He opened his account exactly 10 years ago in Australia as a middle-order batter, who later opened his batting account himself. His position in both Test and ODI setup had never been permanent during all these years that affected him mentally.
“I have batted in many positions. Earlier it was a bit of difficult not from a technical point but more on a mental level about how to bat in the first 20 or 25 balls”. He opened about his apprehensions.
When can I attack? How careful do I need to be? Those were some tough issues for me at the start.
“But now that I’ve played Test and one-day cricket all around the world, that gives me an idea of how to pace my innings,” the smooth stroke-maker said, who has two hundreds in South Africa, one in Australia, and a couple more in England among his eight Test works.
In Test batting, he has simplified it in his mind.
“Whether I bat top order or middle, if I can get the first 30-40 balls to start with, then everything seems to be just normal batting, that’s what I concentrate on,” he said.