There was not a single score over 25 in the last 10 Test innings for Raul and yet his selection in the Test team proved to be one of the most curious cases in Indian cricket.
Not many have survived the kind of failures Rahul has endured and fewer have received such unwavering support that the Bengaluru man has received of late.
So why is he being pressed with him?
Talent or favoritism? a match winner or a liability? There are different opinions, but for men who matter, he is precious.
There are not many videos of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the same frame. But there was a shock just after the Indian team finished their Asian Cup campaign in Dubai, where Kohli was interviewed by his skipper for BCCI TV following his much-anticipated 71st international hundred, against Afghanistan.
That interaction stood out for a different reason.
“We shouldn’t ignore KL hitting as we know how important it is for KL to have good headspace, heading into the World Cup. We know what he can do in this format, he plays very clean shots and once he bats in T20 cricket, our team looks even stronger” Kohli said when Rohit asked how the former skipper was helping the other players.
If one has potential, he will get runs, not just KL Rahul, says India captain Rohit Sharma
The only thing that seemed a little out of place in that particular interview was that the question about Rahul didn’t feel organic. It looked like they were trying to make a statement in support of Rahul on behalf of the team.
The two biggest names in that dressing room wanted to gain a protective shield around a teammate, whom they view as a talent minefield but whose accomplishments have been few and far between.
It has been almost six months since that interaction and calls for Rahul to be sent off have reached a crescendo after three consecutive bust-outs against Australia. Before facing Australia he had four under-25 scores against Bangladesh, not the most feared of Test opponents.
What has surprised many is the carte blanche that the leadership led by Rahul Dravid has given the man from Bangalore.
Over the last couple of weeks, three senior members of India’s team management have had idle questions about Rahul’s form, but there was something eerily similar to their defence.
In Nagpur, the PTI had asked batting coach Vikram Rathour, also a former national selector, about Rahul’s form. Initially, he didn’t want to comment, but then he talked about the last two hundred tests of him.
“To be fair to KL, he (Rahul) has scored two hundred in his last 10 Tests – one in England and the other in South Africa and he’s got a couple of fifties too. So yeah, I don’t think we’re there,” Rathour had said in Nagpur after the second day of play against Australia.
Cut in Delhi, to coach Dravid and skipper Rohit’s post-match interactions, the underlying narrative about Rahul seemed to be cut from the same cloth.
“It’s not just about KL, it’s about anyone. If you look at a couple of hundred, it’s come out of India (England and SA, both in 2021), one of the best I’ve seen from KL, especially that of Lord’s.
“Batting on that damp pitch in England, (that too) after losing the toss and batting is never easy. He (Rahul) had a great performance there and Centurion was another. India won both matches. That’s the potential he has,” Rohit was all praise for his then vice-captain.
Dravid said almost the same thing in a reconstructed way.
“We will support him (Rahul) as much as we can,” Dravid told Star Sports.
So why this sort of allure for one player in particular, whose average is 33.44 below average after 47 Tests.
It is because every important member of the team management feels that Rahul is more talented than a Mayank Agarwal or a Shikhar Dhawan.
Talent without hard work is useless, but hard work without talent can only guarantee limited success.
Let’s take a few numbers to decode the three frontrunners who have played for India over the past five years.
Rahul has 81 Test innings to his credit and has only hit the 50-run limit 20 times, which includes seven hundred and 13 half-centuries. The conversion rate is a 50 plus knock every four innings. Nothing spectacular.
Coming to Mayank Agarwal, he has 36 Test innings to his credit and has 10 hits in over 50, with four hundred and six half-centuries. That’s more than fifty knocks every 3.6 innings.
The third champion is Dhawan, who last played Tests in 2018. He played 58 innings and has the best 50-to-100 conversion rate of the trio, with seven hundred and five fifties. So that’s more than 12-fifty scores in 58 hits, roughly one hit every five innings (4.83 to be exact).
But here’s the catch. Agarwal was out after eight hits under 50. Ditto for Dhawan, who was out after eight misses (4 Tests) in England, where he started in four innings. In one of the Tests India won, Dhawan scored 35 and 44 at Nottingham.
But in Rahul’s case, there have been too many failures amidst his success.
From his last hundred to the Centurion in the Boxing Day Test, Rahul played 11 innings and struck out one and fifty but endured 10 consecutive bustouts, failing to go beyond 25.
The Indian team are using a different yardstick for Rahul. They are not showing the number of innings he has failed and are only talking about the two hundred he has got in his last 10 Tests.
Where the team management’s alleged ‘favoritism’ seems to be gaining credence, if you go by Venkatesh Prasad’s strong tweets in the last couple of tests, is how far his lean patch was stretched before he got that hundred at Lords in 2021.
Prior to that hit, he had played 14 innings in three years and struck out one and fifty. Lord’s first Test hundred was in 2018, but he came in a dead rubber at the Oval, after India lost the series. Prior to the Oval hundred, he had a 15-shot dry spell with no fifty.
To be fair to Dravid, Rohit and Rathour, they were not part of that previous management of Virat Kohli, Ravi Shastri and Sanjay Bangar who had also backed Rahul all the way.
With Shubman Gill forced to wait at a time when he’s in the rut, Rahul, having been stripped of his vice-captainship, will likely have one last chance at redemption in Indore.
Numbers don’t always paint the whole picture and the great Neville Cardus once wrote, “The scoreboard was an ass because, as in these cases, it would spoil a perfectly delightful story.”
From Rahul, Dravid and Rohit are waiting for that tale.
(With inputs from PTI)
