KL Rahul, India’s No. 5, was pulled back into the fray after just twelve balls. Alongside him, a backup fielder dashed in carrying a bottle of electrolyte water for Virat Kohli, the other batsman who was waiting in the centre. Before tapping gloves with his partner and starting his own pre-batting rituals, Rahul helped himself to a drink as well. For 6.45 PM, he had alternative plans. One of them was taking a refreshing shower after 49.3 overs of “keeping.” He had hoped there would be some downtime after that. But there he was again, ready to deal with the chaos in the field.
The opening night of India’s World Cup campaign was a hot one in Chennai, the kind of heat that can only be felt firsthand. The forehead, the brows, and the area behind the knee caps are all covered in sweat. And you’re just standing there. On a Sunday afternoon, members of the support crew approached the fielders’ boundary with towels and offered to dry their shirts. It was a humid heat, the kind that makes assessments and thoughts difficult to distinguish. It was a fertile ground for latent danger when you added a tough two-paced track and bowlers like Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc to this vessel of misery.
Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer attempted an attack and a counterattack, respectively, and it was the same for them. There was fair concern that, as it had done in the match between these two sides here in March, the softer ball would prove to be more difficult to score against later in the innings against Adam Zampa and company. For the first time in their ODI history, three of their top four batters were bowled without contributing, leaving India at 2 / 3.
This is the kind of situation India has gotten themselves into at pivotal moments in ICC events. In 2017, at The Oval; in 2019, at Old Trafford; and in 2021, in Dubai. Some of these teams have left these competitions regretting a few minutes of subpar play. Early on in this World Cup, they were in that dreaded window. The fact that the attack was as effective as Australia’s even without the spin depth served as a litmus test to see if the previous lessons had been applied.
Rahul’s unbeaten 97 was a magnificent display of restraint and skill, with a twisting conclusion including a four-run try that ended up being a six. In a 165-run stand, he served as Kohli’s partner and psychologist, speaking with him on close calls and getting a response in return. His pinpoint punches of the ball matched Kohli’s arcs down the pitch perfectly.
Rahul, though, actually changed the game’s outcome when he made two lovely late cutters for fours off Zampa. Rahul timed an over-corrected half-volley to the extra-cover boundary after the slip immediately went out to make it three boundaries in one over. At that moment, it seemed as though all the tension had been released. Australia’s assault was less potent than India’s three-spinner attack in the first innings because Zampa didn’t pose as much of a danger.
It would be simple to oversell it after just one match, especially given the target wasn’t particularly difficult and the dew was a factor, but India will draw encouragement from the fact that they bravely and firmly played their way out of a concerning pattern of batting errors costing them crucial matches. And it would be quite nice to know that Rahul was the one to get his side out of a slump at the start of a World Cup campaign. The main criticism of their 2019 season was that they never stuck with and signed at least one reliable middle-order batter to compliment their depth at Nos. 1, 2, and 3. This was admitted even by then coach Ravi Shastri.
Rahul actually started the World Cup in England in the middle of the order, but a quick injury to Shikhar Dhawan early in the competition caused him to move back up. Early in 2020, Rishabh Pant’s concussion led to a happy reunion with the No. 5 position. Since then, he has established himself in the middle of the order, batting at Nos. 4 or 5 in 27 of the 34 innings and tallying 1326 points from those 27 games at an average of 66.30. There are three hundreds and ten fifty-sixes in there, thus there is a 50+ score once every two innings of batting. It comes as no surprise that India maintained a slot open for him during his four months of injury recovery. Rahul can begin playing in spin or against pace making him a versatile player to handle the vagaries of the role.
India found some of its core strength at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in the World Cup’s opening match, but it will need to maintain that throughout the competition. After scoring two points from a precarious position, they may now exhale deeply and head back to the pit.
