Love opening, but will bat wherever team needs me to, says KL Rahul

If his Sydney ton was all about proving to the world that he was ready for Test cricket, then at P’Sara Oval he had to prove that Sydney wasn’t a flash in the pan. That he really could bounce back from a couple of failures, and make up for them as well. Galle had been a double botch, as he fell to the new-ball — once to a seamer and once to a spinner — on both occasions. And for the second time in four Tests, the opener proved that he had the gumption to reverse a reversal, as he scored a brisk 108 on Thursday.

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“Both have been very difficult hundreds and in very difficult conditions and have been challenging for me. I didn’t get runs in the first Test and to come here and play like the way I did was very satisfying for me,” he said at the end of the day.

There was a dropped catch early in his innings, again while attempting an untoward shot, to get over and a testing new-ball spell from Dhammika Prasad to get through with. Rahul survived them both.

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Top of his game

And as the day wore on, he only kept getting more and more on top of his game, and subsequently on top of the Lankan bowling. At the other end, skipper Virat Kohli looked on like a doting guardian, applauding every time Rahul swayed out of the way of a bouncer with the same verve as he did when the right-hander played a classical straight-drive. As it turned out, Kohli was at the other end even when Rahul was on his way to his maiden Test ton at the SCG, with the duo sharing a 141-run stand.

“Always enjoyed batting with Virat. Even in Sydney he was there when I reached my hundred. He brings in a lot of energy and a lot of positivity when he comes in to bat,” he said.

“With Rohit, it is a lot calmer. He likes to take his time, you look at him batting and you feel like he is batting with so much ease and so much time. “It was a lot of fun to bat with both of them,” the youngster added when asked about the time spent at the crease with Rohit Sharma.

Rahul had come in to the squad as the third opener behind Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan. But while he replaced the recovering Vijay for the first Test, Dhawan’s series-ending hand injury helped him keep his place at the top of the order.

Having scored his second century in three Tests, it will be tough to dislodge him from a spot he’s making his own. And there has been talk of Rahul probably even being used as a middle-order batsman, especially with No. 3 proving to be an almost-jinxed spot for whoever tries his luck there.

While admitting that he should be open to batting anywhere the team wants him to, Rahul did accept that his preferred spot was at the top of the order.

“Whatever the team demands for me to do, I will do that but if you ask me personally, I have always opened the batting, I enjoy batting up the order. But again, if the team wants me to bat in a different position, it is a good challenge for me,” he said.

But those discussions can wait. For now, at least India’s redemption man seems to have found his footing again.