The inconsistent class of KL Rahul

Kannur Lokesh Rahul, commonly knows as KL Rahul has been one of the revelations in Indian cricket in the past couple of years. He has shown glimpses of brilliance that made people believe that he belongs on the big stage. A classy right-hander who can adapt to all the three formats of the game is gradually becoming the preferred choice for the opening slot across all forms.

The 24-year-old made a wonderful start to his international career when in only his second Test match, he scored his maiden Test ton against Australia in Sydney. It was a treat to watch him bat against the fiery pacers down under. In the ODIs as well, he made a century on debut against Zimbabwe in Harare and ended up being the leading run-getter in the three-match series which eventually won him the man of the series award.

He, in fact, became only the third Indian after Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma to hit hundreds in all the three formats when he notched up a ton in a T20I against West Indies in Florida last year. It was an incredible feat to achieve at such a young age that not too many big names in the cricketing fraternity have been able to match.

He is currently averaging 40, 55 and 56 in Tests, ODIs and T20Is respectively. The stats suggest that he must be a hugely consistent batsman for India. But if we dig deeper, we will find that he has been anything but. Despite having all the flamboyance, he has had a stop-start career and has already seen plenty of ups and downs.

Consistently inconsistent

In 20 innings in Test cricket, he has scored a total of 797 runs which include four centuries. This means that his total tally of runs contributed in those four innings is 575 – the 16 other innings have produced only 222. There has been just one half-century and in 15 other innings, he has scored less than 40 runs each time. These stats clearly suggest that he has been highly irregular with big scores.

If we take a look at his numbers in ODIs, he has 220 runs to his name in six innings which are aided by a century and a fifty. If we remove the contributions of these two, there are only 57 runs in four innings. The story is better in T20s though where he has compiled 280 runs in seven innings with a century and a half-century - the other five innings yielding 99 runs.

Numbers don’t lie and it is evident that he has failed to be steady and still has plenty of work to do on his game. He has either scored big or has fallen cheaply and there are hardly any in-between innings. After a series of low scores, he would come up with a big one and that’s been the script of his career so far.

The problem?

There is absolutely no doubt about the talent. So where does he lack? It’s the start of the innings where he falters. Rahul is a shaky starter- be it Test cricket or the limited overs formats. His feet don’t move too well at the beginning and he tends to flash at the deliveries outside the off stump.

As a result, he throws his wicket away early with the most common mode of dismissal being caught in the slips. He can seek inspiration from his skipper who also had a habit of going after wide deliveries but that hardly happens these days because he is now prepared to leave bowls outside off. Rahul too can take big learnings from Kohli and implement in his game.

Kohli and the selectors have shown a lot of faith in him and backed him in spite of the failures. But he cannot take that for granted anymore. The Indian team is blessed with plenty of talented batsmen knocking at the door in every position. A triple centurion from the last game has been made to sit out because the other established batsman in the side returned to the squad, such is the bench strength of India.

There is a fierce competition and more so for the opening slots. Shikhar Dhawan might be out of the side, but he will leave no stone unturned in trying to make a comeback. Parthiv Patel too has shown his pedigree with his performances against England. Gautam Gambhir was back in the side for a while and given the opportunity, Karun Nair won’t mind opening. And if that’s not all, Abhinav Mukund has returned to the squad after a series of good performances in domestic cricket.

The Karnataka man now has to repay the faith of the selectors by scoring with much consistency. He is just 24 years of age and has a long way to go. If only he could avoid the regular injuries and be more regular with the scoring, he can certainly be the constant opener in three formats and could well go on to become a great batsman for India.