KL Rahul is doing all the right things, watching the ball till the last second, playing it as late as possible, trying hard not to push too hard, and yet he nicked a ball that didn't come in as much he thought it would.
On another day, he might have left the very ball without prodding at it, he might have pushed it just hard enough to drive through the vacant cover region, or he might have even gotten lucky that the ball came in to meet a meatier part of his bat. But not today ,on a day when he really needed to stay around long enough, long enough to pull the tired fast bowlers, long enough to sweep the spinners, long enough to stay in the test team.
He has one more chance to redeem himself, one more chance to stay in the test team. The spicy red ball would zip past his ears like a bee swarm, snaking in from Starc, straightening out from Josh, deceiving all around from Cummins. He must be prepared to hear them out, play himself in, and play them out.
So how should he go about doing that? Should he defend with soft hands, play close to his body and get out to an excellent ball? Should he hoick the balls to all the corners of the field like he does in the shorter format? He got out playing such a shot in his only respectable innings of the series. He did play the best shot of the series along the way, that unflinching cover drive to fly Cummins into the stands.
Some people are just not meant to be test openers, it is for him to decide what he wants, does he want to win matches as a batsman in all the formats? Then accept his weakness, the worst that a test opener can have, and beg not to be sent in to play the new ball. It won't matter to Pujara, for he will be playing the new ball anyway if Rahul is allowed to open in the slightest of the seaming conditions.
