With Rohit Sharma's return, KL Rahul discusses his mental approach to batting order changes in the Adelaide Oval Test against Australia and expressed his readiness to bat at any position.
KL Rahul performed admirably in the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test against Australia in Perth, scoring 26 and 77 as an opener. With Rohit's return, questions arose about Rahul's batting position.
“I just want to be in the playing XI, go out there and bat and play for the team. I just go there and try and see what I need to do to get runs in a particular situation. Luckily I have batted in different positions," the 32-year-old batsman told reporters ahead of India's training session in Adelaide. Rahul began his Test career a decade ago in Australia as a middle-order batsman before transitioning to opener.
“Early on, when I was asked to bat at different positions, it was a bit of a challenge mentally. How to play those first 20-25 balls? how early can I attack? Those things were a problem earlier, but it has gotten easy with the experience of playing in different formats,” added the elegant stroke-maker, who has eight Test centuries.
Rahul revealed he was informed in advance about the possibility of opening in Australia. To gain valuable match practice, the 32-year-old then played in the second game of the recent India A series against Australia A.
"Like I said, I've batted a lot at the top of the order, to know how to get my runs, what processes to follow," he said. "I got enough practice, I came here early and spent some time on the wicket. We played a couple of practice games as well, which helped my preparation.", he said.
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