Hungrier each time I come back, says Rahul

Except for a brief awkward little phase at the very beginning, it was as if KL Rahul had never been away from the game. That he hadn’t missed the last four months with first shoulder surgery and then rehab, and finally the first Test in Galle because of a viral fever.

Bolstered by the faith shown in him by the team management, Rahul slotted right back into the Indian team at the SSC ground on Thursday (August 3), making a polished 57 before being run out following a mix-up with 50-Test man Cheteshwar Pujara. It was Rahul’s sixth consecutive half-century in a Test innings, and laid the early foundation for India’s day-one total of 344 for 3 in the second Test against Sri Lanka.

At 25, and in just two-and-a-half years at the top level, Rahul has already established himself as a key member of the team across formats. His exploits have been impressive enough for the team management to offer him the security of his place in the XI whenever he is fit, a happy position to be in from which, Rahul admitted, he derived loads of confidence.

“It makes a massive difference, it gives me so much confidence,” said the well-spoken Rahul in the evening. “Not just now but even after the surgery, the support staff, the coaches, the boys were constantly messaging me and saying ‘Whenever you are ready, get ready sooner, the team misses you’. Small things like that make a lot of difference when you are injured and you are down. That kept me motivated, that woke me up each morning to go to physiotherapy and do my boring rehab. It gives you confidence that the team is backing you, the team trusts you, is waiting for you to come back and that makes a big difference; I come back with lot more confidence. I can walk into the team with ease in my head. There is no pressure of me losing my position, which is great. The captain and coaches have always given me that support which has played a big role in my small career so far.”

Rahul said he needed this innings – but not necessarily the runs – for obvious reasons. “The significance of this innings being, it’s been a long time I have been away from the game at such a young age. It’s a big challenge. The minute I walked out into the middle, I was very happy more than anything else. If I did well or didn’t do well, it didn’t matter to me because I was very happy. Not being able to play cricket was tough but once I am back, I am really happy and even more happy I could start off with a fifty and make some contribution to the team.”

Because he has missed so many games in such a short span of time, there could be the danger of desperation every time he returns to action. But Rahul was emphatic in stating that he was less desperate and more hungry each single time. “It makes me value each opportunity a lot more. When you are sitting out and when you are seeing your team-mates doing well, you do feel very happy but you also feel disappointed that it’s not you in that position doing the job for the country, for the team,” he revealed. “Every time I have come back, I have been more hungry. Whatever time I have spent away from the game, I have watched the guys batting. Not just our guys but I watch a lot of cricket, I see the guys and see what they are doing right and I try to bring that into my game.”

Rahul’s Test debut in December 2014 in Melbourne wasn’t particularly edifying, though he more than made up with a century the following week, in Sydney. Asked to compare the wait between those two Tests to the race to regaining fitness like in the recent past, he replied, “This is a lot more difficult because physical injuries ... you want to do a lot of things. We as sportsmen, we're not used to just sitting at home and being at home all day. We want to go out, we want to play sport, we want to be in the gym, want to train, we want to hit balls, and when you're not physically able to do that, it's really tough. It starts playing on the mind a lot more. Sydney, the way it was, definitely very difficult. But I think injuries are a lot harder on the body and on the mind.”

There was a time when Rahul could only score hundreds and little else in between – “I am dying to get that back!” – but he now has six straight fifties, and a hundred has been elusive for a while. “I've never chased numbers, firstly,” he emphasised. “My job as an opening batsman is to give the team a good start, lay a solid foundation and I think I've done that so far. Disappointing that I have not been able to convert that, but I think that will keep me more hungry.

“Each time I go back to bat, I will want to get more and more runs. I'm learning from my mistakes. Each time I've done a silly mistake and that's how it is. Life of a batsman is ... you might play 60 balls perfectly and then one ball you get out. We were discussing that in the dressing-room just today. You played so well ... all the guys, whoever got out, were playing so well and never looked like getting out and one ball has your name on it and you have to get out. Might as well enjoy the time you're in the middle and get as many runs as you can.”

The string of fifties, however, hasn’t yet made him cautious once the mini-milestone is out of the way, he insisted. “Maybe if this keeps going, it might start playing on my mind,” he half-smiled. “But nothing changes, you feel a lot more confident, you're seeing the ball a lot better, so you want to maybe play a little bit more positively. Maybe sometimes that has led to the downfall, maybe I try to play too many shots knowing that I'm set. All these things, all the answers to the questions I will only find when I'm in the middle and when I get a hundred. That's when I'll know what the right process is and how I need to go about my innings.”

When India played at the SSC two years back, there was a fair covering of grass and the seamers were always in the picture. This time, Rahul pointed out, the situation was totally different. “It's completely different from the one we played on the last time around,” he agreed. “When we saw the wicket a couple of days ago, we did expect it to be the same as last time, but today we turned up and the wicket was different.

“It was on the slower side and I think it will take turn as the days go. The more the footmarks, the more turn and purchase (R) Ashwin and (Ravindra) Jadeja can get. It is crumbly dry, it has crumbled a bit. With the footmarks, the ball will do something.”