Is it fair to pick KL Rahul for Tests on the back of white-ball performances?
The sense of anticipation for India’s overseas tours is always high. With an infinite pool of talented players to choose from, it becomes increasingly difficult to pick the right squad. Which is why the announcement of such squads is always met with heavy scrutiny. While India has had settled squads for some time, the selection of KL Rahul in Tests for the ensuing tour to Australia raised quite a few eyebrows. Rahul is a classy batsman and has done exceedingly well in white-ball cricket in recent times. But he has struggled in Tests. So, is it fair for selectors to pick Rahul for Tests on the back of white-ball performances?
The Karnataka batsman is currently the leading run-getter in the IPL and by quite some margin. He has played outstandingly well and has mixed caution with aggression perfectly. After the prolonged break, a lot of cricketers were finding it tough to time the ball, as they are known to. But Rahul faced no such difficulties. He also showed the ability not just to smash the ball but hold one end and not lose his calm under pressure. With few batsmen hitting the ball as well as Rahul, it is perhaps a good idea to utilise Rahul’s form down under.
Experience at the top
Another very important point is the fact that India’s openers are relatively inexperienced. Prithvi Shaw has played seven innings at the top, while Mayank Agarwal has played 17. Even if Rohit Sharma is fit to play, he too is an inexperienced Test opener with just six innings in his bag. On the other hand, Rahul has loads of experience of opening for India, especially on overseas tours. He has opened in 54 innings for India, with 5 tons, one of which came in Australia in his debut series. All that experience, which is lacking in the rest of the openers could be a huge determining factor against bowlers like Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins.
Every coin has two sides
But every argument has 2 sides. This one does too. It is extremely important to note that picking a player for the longest format on the basis of white-ball cricket is fundamentally flawed. The formats are different, the skill sets required are different. The batsmen who play aggressively and muscle the ball around in white-ball cricket need to leave balls outside the off-stump and bat out time.
Add to that, Rahul was given an extended run in 2018 on all overseas tours, where he failed miserably. He managed to cross a match-aggregate of 50 runs only thrice out of 13 times (one game against Afghanistan at home) in the 2018-2019 Test season. Ironically, he had a great IPL in 2018 as well, which goes to show that IPL performances can just never be the benchmark for Test selections.
Since 2018, Rahul is averaging a mere 22.1 in Tests and hasn’t done anything significant to prove that he can handle the pressures of red-ball cricket.
Quality batsmen at the top
It is also important to note that India have a rich reserve of quality batsmen. The likes of Abhimanyu Easwaran (64 matches) and Priyank Panchal (98 matches) have played on all kinds of surfaces in India, in all situations, and are currently averaging over 45. It is imperative to give these guys an opportunity since they have consistently succeeded in the longest format. Every country rewards their domestic players, and picks players according to their long-format performances and not on the basis of T20 outings.
To sum up, Rahul is an outstanding limited-overs player and also doubles up as a quality wicket-keeper. His appointment as vice-captain in white-ball cricket is a validation of that. However, he has failed consistently in Test cricket over the last couple of years, despite having done well in ODIs and T20s. Time will tell if the tour Down Under will see the birth of Rahul, the Test player.
