Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has now explained the reason why IND batter KL Rahul has succeeded in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as compared to his other Indian compatriots with the bat.
So far, Rahul has proven to be one of India’s most stable and reliable batting options in the Border-Gavaskar series, having scored more than 200 runs.
While the rest of the Indian top order fell apart in no time, Rahul seems to have withstood the AUS pace attack, picking his moments to make steady progress.
In an interview to India Today on what KL Rahul does right and others not, Gavaskar explained, “He just is still and then his head position helps him judge the line of the ball”.
He is very still at the crease. There is a little trigger movement, but his head is upright, and that’s the reason why he is able to judge where the off-stump is, and leave those deliveries. And that is so essential, ’cause when the ball is hard and new, and bowlers are on top, you need to give them respect for the first half-an-hour or 45 minutes, because the next 5 hours will be yours, he added.
A disciplined Rahul has drawn a lucky break early in the day, because Steve Smith dropped a sitter of a catch to give Rahul a second life in this innings.
As Rahul maintained his outstanding form, it now stands that he was much at ease slashing and driving his way to a fantastic fifty full of strokes, keeping alive India’s hopes of avoiding a follow-on.
