India vs South Africa: KL Rahul has golden chance to make opener's slot his own once and for all

Four years is a long, long time. In many major sports, a new champion is crowned every four years. While Olympics remain the pinnacle for many sports, some, like cricket, have their own World Cup, which decides who has the bragging rights until the tournament returns. For KL Rahul, who too now walks into his fourth year as an International cricketer, the upcoming tour to South Africa and the year ahead could prove to his sternest test so far. In the last three years, Rahul has graduated from a promising youngster to one of best talents going around the world, en route overcoming varied set of challenges. After playing for India U-19 in the 2010 World Cup, Rahul, who plays for Karnataka in the domestic cricket, hogged the headlines in the 2013-14 season for scoring over 1000 runs in Ranji Trophy, which included a Man of the Match performance in the final. His rich vein of domestic form soon earned him a contract with Sunrisers Hyderabad in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014, although he failed to adapt to the demands of the cricket’s shortest format, scoring just 166 runs at a run-a-ball strike rate. As India continued to struggle on their overseas tours, they took the punt on the Bangalore youngster for the tour Down Under of 2014-15. After a horrendous debut at Melbourne, Rahul showed his true potential in the next game, scoring his maiden century in the Sydney Test. Over the course of the next year and half, Rahul continued fine tuning his game, worked on his fitness, and most importantly, he trusted himself to deliver in all three formats. “I worked on my weaknesses, made sure I got a lot fitter, because in one-dayers and T20s, you need to do a lot of running,” Rahul said. It showed in his performance for Royal Challenger Bangalore(RCB) in IPL 2016, where he scored 397 runs at a commendable strike rate of 146.49. “If someone says you can’t do something, prove them wrong," said Rahul, after scoring his maiden ODI century against Zimbabwe on debut, evidently in reference to people who doubted his abilities in limited overs cricket. After conquering his limited overs demons, Rahul turned his attention to scoring more consistently in Test cricket; which was not the case before 2017, and ended up scoring seven consecutive half-centuries in the four-Test match series against Australia. Just when it looked like India have finally settled on an opening pair in Tests, the other being Murali Vijay, Rahul suffered a shoulder injury, which made him miss the IPL and the Champions Trophy. In his absence, Shikhar Dhawan has staked a claim for the opener’s slot with many fine performances, such as his 190 against Sri Lanka in Galle in August 2017. Dhawan’s rich form, coupled with Vijay scoring a century in the second Test of the home series against the Lankans, meant that Rahul had to miss out on the last home Test of the season despite being fit. It is quite plausible that Virat Kohli will end up going with Dhawan and Vijay as his first choice openers in Africa, leaving Rahul to perform the duties of a reserve opener, chipping in case of an injury or bad form. Rahul has had a good run in 2017, scoring over 600 runs, averaging nearly 50. However, his ability to convert his fifties into hundreds has been a blemish on an otherwise impressive year. He scored nine fifties in 2017 without any hundreds, something that the right-handed batsman would aim to correct in the upcoming series. If the Karnataka player gets his chance on the tour, he would primarily be tasked with blunting out the opposition’s pace attack, laying the platform for the middle order to take control of the innings.     Considering his technical proficiency, which is held in high regards by many, including Rahul Dravid, it is not a task out of his grasp. Out of the top four pacers for the hosts, three of them – Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel are making a return from injuries. If Rahul ends up putting the trio on the field for long, it could make the job easier for the rest of the batting line-up. On a personal level however, the RCB wicket-keeper batsman would like to snatch the opener’s slot once and for all on the back of a string of top-notch performances. The last time India went to South Africa in 2013, Dhawan failed to balance the restraints of batting in bowling-friendly conditions with his natural gung-ho approach. His game was opened up by Dale Steyn and Co as he was continuously out pulling or hooking. There remains a very real possibility that history may repeat itself again in 2018. Dhawan hasn’t done much to dispel doubts about his limitations as an overseas opener. In light of the above, when the opportunity presents itself, Rahul should be more than ready to make good use of it, and finally settle the debate around who should be India’s top two openers in the longest format of the game.

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