Who is to rule out a Rahul encore

KL Rahul. Pic/AFP

KL Rahul didn't play any cricket for more than four months, between May 1, 2023 when he tore a tendon in his right leg during an Indian Premier League game, and September 10, 2023 when he was hurriedly drafted into the 50-over Asia Cup XI against Pakistan after Shreyas Iyer suffered back spasms a few minutes before the toss.

Showing no signs of having been caught unawares, the stylish right-hander produced a subliminal unbeaten 111, adding 233 for the unbroken third wicket with Virat Kohli to mastermind India's record 228-run triumph.

Since that evening in Colombo, Rahul hasn't looked back. In 18 ODI innings, he amassed 834 runs at 69.50 and a strike-rate of 90.94, almost all of them while keeping wickets. His ODI form, batting in the middle order and donning the big gloves, was in stark contrast to his Test travails. Twelve innings since his 123 in Centurion two years back netted him just one fifty and nothing else more than 23.

Seeking to use the 50-over format as a template, the Indian think-tank contemplated fielding Rahul at No. 6 as a wicketkeeper-batsman in Test cricket too, what with Rishabh Pant still unavailable and Ishan Kishan having returned home for personal reasons. Rahul jumped at the idea, desperate to resuscitate his career. Having talked the talk, he walked it too with a superb 101 in the doomed first Test at SuperSport Park, just about the only bright spot, along with Jasprit Bumrah's four-for, in an otherwise miserable game for the visitors.

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Rahul was almost totally involved in the Test - he came into bat in the 27th over of the first innings and was last man dismissed, in the 66th, kept wickets for 108.4 overs and was asked to come out again in the 18th over of the second innings, though he only last a half-hour - and acquitted himself creditably. While his first-innings batting was otherworldly, prompting the legendary Sunil Gavaskar to rank it among the top 10 Test centuries ever by Indians, his wicketkeeping was impeccable. He handled the steepling bounce with aplomb and wasn't fazed by the ball jagging around. It was Rahul at his best in front of and behind the stumps, a big box ticked.

In the past, Rahul has received more than his fair share of flak on social media, most of it without justification, and while he admitted that he too was affected by it like anyone else, he found ways to work on himself and move on from all that. The results have been staggering; the 31-year-old seems to have found a second wind and for a beleaguered Rohit Sharma desperate for contributions from as many quarters as possible, that's a huge shot in the arm.

Rahul will again need to figure prominently if India are to make a fist of it in Cape Town next week. Greater support won't be unwelcome.