Rahul-vijay partnership shows glimpses of a bright future

OPENING GAMBIT

WITH A feathery flick to mid-wicket, KL Rahul raised the 50-run partnership between him and Vijay, before he strolled towards Vijay, wearing a broad smile, and warmly shook hands. You would wonder why they would bother celebrate such a minor milestone. After all, they had combined only 50 runs, not as significant a landmark as a hundred or double hundred-run partnership, perhaps. A gentle, appreciatory nod would have sufficed.

But it was special for them, precisely because it was the first-time ever they had ever put together a 50-run partnership.

First time, ever? It sounds slightly as anomalous as implausible, because both of them are touted the best opening pair in the country. And by saying the best opening pair, it’s implied, conveys a feeling that they have been stockpiling runs in tandem. The implication, usually, rings true — talk of Langer and Hayden, Greenidge and Haynes or Taylor and Slater. They are often discussed in pairs, and not in isolation, even if they have the credentials to be judged on the their own merit. But that’s how deep-set the perceptions are.

However, Vijay and Rahul have been an exception thus far. However, before we seek statistical vindication, we need to consider the fact that they have batted together only 13 times including their latest outing. The number strikes odd, because India has played 23 Tests in this span. A bizarre coincidence of injuries account for this irregularity. It seemed the handiwork of some strange forces in conspiracy, as when Vijay returned from an injury, Rahul would invariably pick one. Consequently, Rahul missed seven and Vijay three in this span; the latter has paired up with three other batsmen and the former with four others.

Hence for them, opening has been strictly a lonely pursuit, which is fully reflected by their fallow aggregate of 17.30. But individually, though, both have had reasonably fruitful returns, both have peeled off four hundreds apiece in this time.

But here again, there seemed to exist a strange trick of some strange force. When Rahul scored his maiden Test hundred in Sydney, Vijay picked up a duck. The pattern was same on the occasion of Rahul’s second hundred, at the P Sara Oval. And then when Vijay reeled out hundreds in Mumbai and Hyderabad, Rahul’s scores read 24 and 2. Their highest partnership, remained 48, in the second innings at the P Sara.

But on Friday, by orchestrating their highest-ever partnership, they woke our sensibilities up to the sheer harmony of their stroke-play. So much so that they might easily be the most aesthetic opening pair around, but in diverse ways. Rahul is all angular elegance, while Vijay is languid grace. Whereas Rahul instinctively hits on the rise, those malleable wrists flexing like an artist’s AP brush, Vijay leans into his drives, his bat moving like it’s an extension of his body alone, the feet and bat moving telepathically.

These are batsmen who coaxes and cajoles boundaries, unaffected by the banality of brute force.

The 90-odd minutes they were together, soothed the eye-sore that was Steven Smith’s marathon effort, what his his crabby technique and fidgetiness.

Rahul breezed along in a tic, rather expectedly given the sumptuous form he has been in the whole series, and looking by far the most hassle-less Indian batsman in the series. Vijay was understandably circumspect, given the reality that he has’t yet made any significant score in the series.

Rahul’s first four was a delightful, if slightly meaty by his methods, through square-leg. The second one was more characteristic of him — a short-of-length delivery he punched on the back-foot through covers. Vijay gave a wink of appreciation. There were a few flashy edges, all when he tried to force drives on the back-foot. But each time he edged, Vijay would walk up to him and mutter something in the ear. But even his edges seemed to reach the fence without any hurry, as if it were all intentional.

As Rahul grew a little streaky, maybe a lapse in concentration or the petulance of youth, Vijay revived some of his fluency. Vijay leaned into a Hazlewood delivery to take his first boundary, which was the 51st ball he had faced. Then when Nathan Lyon arrived, he swept him thrice for boundaries, one of it was a top-edge, but the rest were authoritatively accomplished. The last of his six boundaries was the most lyrical - stepping down and just lifting Lyon over mid-off.

Rahul, then, took a leaf out of Vijay’s book and began to exercise more discretion outside the off-stump.

Now the roles were reversed, Vijay pulled over the aggressor’s garb, while Rahul moderated his own aggressive impulses.

Rahul perished, in much the same manner as Vijay had in the England series, to a lifter on fourth-stump, caught up in the dilemma to leave or defend.

Thus was broken an association that promised much more, but nonetheless association that enthralled the audience. For, they are a match made in the connoisseurs’ heaven. Andtheycould,infuture,bediscussedaspairs, one incomplete without the other.

Vijay and Rahul added 91 for the first wicket — their highest partnership.