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K L Rahul -- A complete batsman


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It is not often that a batsman with all-round abilities emerges in international cricket.  Some are weak against spin, others against bounce or pace, some against swing etc. There are some batters who don't have the big shots or lack power.

 

Lokesh Rahul started his career with a test century in Australia. Then, we saw him score 60 and 51 not out on a bouncy, seaming track in Dharamsala against Australia. He looks comfortable against pace, bounce and seam movement and has the extra time to handle genuine pace.

 

The first 2 tests against Australia, in the home series,  were rank turners. ( we are generally getting flat test pitches in India these days but they were exceptions ). Both were low scoring matches but Rahul scored  64, 10, 90 and 51.  He is a natural against spin bowling  but scoring consistently on rank turners is something special.

 

From IPL 2016, Rahul discovered his six hitting ability.  And most sixes were really big ones.  He has both power and the gift of timing.  Then, in a T20I against the West Indies, he scored a 110 not out off only 51 balls with 5 sixes.

 

His test against good swing bowling in England and New Zealand is yet to come though and I am looking forward to see how he does in these two places.

 

In the 2016 tour of the West Indies,  Viv Richards was highly impressed by Rahul at a stage in his career when he was just starting off. He said that Rahul is one of the few classical batsmen these days ( said the same thing about Kohli too ). He liked his style of batting.  The great man is an excellent judge of batting talent and it bodes well for Rahul.

 

Rahul has the back-and-across trigger movement which makes it much easier to tackle pace, bounce and off-stump deliveries. That is a big plus for him. His foot-work is very decisive and definitive.  He has almost all the shots in the book and is equally comfortable while playing on the front-foot and back-foot. We see him driving, pulling, hooking, cutting, flicking etc. and playing all around the wicket.  His batting style is very pleasing to the eye.

 

He is averaging 46+ from 19  tests and has 4 test centuries with big scores of 199 and 158.

 

Earlier in his career, we saw Rahul playing a rash shot at the start of his innings, or even at the middle, and getting out suddenly after starting well. In the last 10 months or so, we have seen him cut down these rash strokes. He is leaving a higher percentage of outside off-stump deliveries and off-stump short balls in test matches and that is a step in the right direction.  This issue still plagues him from time to time and he needs to be careful that this bad habit does not creep back.

 

All the best to the young man and I sincerely hope that he has a long and fruitful career for India.

Edited by express bowling
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