KL Rahul had just dropped a sitter. As slip catches go, this one should have been swallowed, regardless of whether the guilty party was playing in his second or his 102nd Test. The edge was a healthy one, and the ball arrived at a comfortable height, just around the knees, and was headed right into the palms. But still it bounced off Rahul’s panic-ridden fingers and agonizingly fell to the floor. As did Rahul, sheepish, embarrassed, and hopeful that the SCG would swallow him up, at least temporarily. Then he picked up the ball and flung it, and as he did so he started screaming frantically. In reality, he was going, “Virat, Virat, Virat” alerting his captain about the directionless ball that had been carelessly flung in his direction. But you could easily imagine him having yelled, “Please take me away from here. This Test cricket is too hard.” You wouldn’t have blamed the youngster from Karnataka if those were the thoughts going through his head at that moment. So far Rahul’s Test career has been nothing short of horrifying. A bad dream that he is desperately hoping to wake up from. A nightmare that at this point promises to haunt him for the rest of his life. It started at the MCG, where he was dismissed in both innings to the audacious-bordering-on-preposterous shots. And here, he had just let slip a great opportunity for India to mark their attendance for the final Test. For, till the time Mohammed Shami produced the outside-edge off Chris Rogers’ bat, Australia were galloping along at over run-a-ball, and by the eighth over were on the cusp of reaching 50. The wicket could have broken the momentum, and who knows, ensured a better day for the visitors at the SCG. It would also have been the buoyancy tonic that Shami was seeking out for, having started his spell with more incisiveness than ever before. But Rahul had floored it. In many ways, the cause for the drop was symptomatic of the over-zealousness that made him attempt those outrageous shots on debut in Melbourne. In his stance, Rahul looks a natural slip fielder, still, relaxed, with his hands resting comfortably on his slightly bent knees. But what let him down was his attempt to catch the ball well in front of his body, his hands stiff and grabbing at the ball. The error in technique came about because he was too anxious, and too eager to get the ball in his grasp, rather than wait for it and then cushion it in his palms. As he lay sprawled on the floor, Ajinkya Rahane did come over for a consolatory pat on the back. But it was Shami who was being consoled at the other end. Test cricket’s a tough place. There’s hardly any room for sympathies. And even lesser room for extended welcomes. As it turned out, he was slow to react to an uppish cut and couldn’t reach out to catch a ball at point in the 25th over of the innings. On this occasion, nobody went across to put an arm around him. At the MCG, it wasn’t Rahul’s failures that mattered. After all he wasn’t the first debutant to suffer the jeepie creepies in his maiden Test. But more the fact that he had belied his reputation. Rahul had come into the Test squad on the back of a stellar domestic season, and having impressed experts around the country, including his namesake Rahul Dravid, with his temperament and his ability to excel in playing long innings. He scored over 1000 runs but also spent a lot of time at the crease to make them, enhancing the status of being a genuine Test-quality batsman. He then went out and played shots that he wouldn’t even dare to attempt in the IPL, where he represents the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Tom Moody, his coach at the franchise, was among those lost for words at the young ward’s momentary lapses of reason. Probably he was just taken in by all the talk about aggression and positivity in the camp. Probably it was just the fact that he had sat padded up for close to half a day watching Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane take on the Australians. But this wasn’t the style of cricket he’d played to get on this pedestal. And it certainly wasn’t the style of cricket that was going to hold him in good stead. And it didn’t. Rahul now has two more chances to prove his worth at this level, and show that the MCG was an aberration. He doesn’t only have his batting lapses to make up for, he’s also already in the arrears by the 70 runs that he let Rogers score after dropping him. For KL Rahul, the time for reckoning is now.
