The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Rahul underlines limited-over mettle
WOULD K L Rahul lose his spot to Rishabh Pant? That was one of the questions floating around before the second T20 as he hasn’t had a great run in the recent times. Scores of 8,5,11 in three ODIS and 8 in the first T20 meant Rahul was under pressure. On Sunday, he hit a 47-ball 71 to help India win a close game and give himself some breather in the times to come. Incidentally, it was the highest T20 score by an Indian batsman against England in T20IS, beating Virender Sehwag's 68 in the 2007 World T20.
There is already this perception about Rahul the batsman—that he often gets out cheaply.notjusthisrecentruninlimited-overs butit’satrendthathehaskeptupwithintests as well. His game sets him for these falls—he has a great urge to feel for the deliveries early on; either keeps pushing at them or goes hard atthem.eveninthisteam,whereheisliked,respectedandbacked,anotherfailuremighthave led to a drop or at least made things really difficult. It was in this context that he came out firingwithanaggressiveknocktoseizetheday.
It’s not surprising of course as even in IPL 2016 he totalled up 397 runs at a strike rate of 146.49 in 12 innings. It wasn’t easy on Sunday, though.virat Kohli fell early and the English seamers were accurate with their lines and lengths. Rahul did the wise thing; he wisely chose the bowler to go after. He decided the spinners were the perfect men to take the attack to and also bid his time. He didn’t initially goaftertheleft-armspinnerliamdawsonbut pouncedonhimwhenhereturnedforthesecond spell. In the 11th over, he charged down thetracktohisfirstdeliveryandloftedittoover long-on for a six that set the tone. Under pressure,dawsonservedafulltosssoon,whichwas put away to the boundary. Rahul was harsh on the legspinner Adil Rashid as well. In the 10th over, he smashed him for a massive six over midwicket at this big ground. In the 14th, he crashed him for two more fours. He sashayed down the track to crunch the first one through coversbeforesweepingpowerfullyforthesecond boundary.
It was an important knock for Rahul and for India. With Manish Pandey labouring initially, the onus was solely on Rahul to set the pace. While Rahul took on the spinners, Pandey slowly settled into a side-hero role. In the past, Rahul has talked about how he feels aboutplayingintheshortestformat.“coaches or your players in the dressing-room can tell you you're not good enough for certain formats, but I never thought they were right,” Rahul said during a tour of Zimbabwe in 2016. “My advice would be not to listen to people. I mean, obviously, you have to listen to your coaches and your elders, but you don't have to do what they say all the time. You know best aboutyourgame-gooutthere,beyourselfand express yourself. If someone says you can't do something, prove them wrong.”
However, with the spinners finishing their quota,englandbouncedbackwiththeirseamers. In last three overs, India managed to add only 20 runs as England seamers once again provedbetterdeathbowlers,especiallyjordon. Rahul couldn’t break free as much as he might have liked in the end overs but his knock proved to be really valuable.
He fell in the 18th over to Jordan; he had picked the slower one and gave it a whack but couldn’t clear the deep midwicket fielder in this big-sized ground. He might have felt that he could have a done a bit more but as things turned out, the Indian bowlers bowled superbly to help India level the series.