Asia Cup: KL Rahul return eases fears; Virat Kohli ton, Kuldeep Yadav five-for headline big win over Pakan | Cricket News

KL Rahul was not even supposed to play this match. He had no business to be even part of the Asia Cup squad, for when the fitness tests were conducted he was still a week or so from being match- ready. Yet, such was the desperation for solid options in the middle order that they took the risk of including him for the tournament in the hope that he would regain fitness.Having converted the foundation laid the openers into a launch pad, Kohli and Rahul provided the finishing touches as India ended up with 356/2 in 50 overs.
The target proved way beyond Pakan’s reach as after Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya struck in the first Powerplay, left-arm wr spinner Kuldeep took charge. With a big score to fall back on, he used his guile to pick his second five-wicket haul as Pakan were routed for 128.
Since injuring his right quadricep in the first week of May which forced him to go under the knife, to the game against Pakan on Sunday which extended to Monday, Rahul only had a couple of practice games at the National Cricket Academy inBengaluru. The designated first-choice wicketkeeper, the groin niggle he suffered mid-August hampered his recovery further, and raised further questions as to whether he can keep wickets for 50 overs and be included in the squad without any actual game time.

And then there was this all important question: For a batsman on whom India are pinning all their hopes in the middle order, will Rahul manage to find form just weeks ahead of the World Cup?
Ask any batsman coming back from an injury. They all will nod in agreement as to how hard it is to get into the groove straightaway, more so in a match situation. The feet don’t move, it takes time to get behind the line of the ball, reflexes would have slowed down, and it will take time to get used to the pace of the partner while running between the wickets. And when they are pushing themselves to meet a deadline of sorts – the World Cup being the case here – they could be even hard on themselves, in the hope that too many things fall in place quickly. The mind may be willing, but the body takes its time, especially when they are making a comeback after a surgery.
“When you have a surgery, the most important thing is for you to respect that you put your body through something very big. You have had a very big repair, so you have to respect it and give your body enough time to recover. And a lot of times, it is like you are fighting a big mental battle where you are always thinking in the back of your head that I may feel pain. And when you are in that sort of mindset, you cannot start focusing on skills. So the big challenge was to get rid of the pain aspect,” Rahul told bcci.tv.
Back to his best
Yet from the moment Rahul joined the team here in Colombo, he has looked the part. In the first net session he had with the team indoors, he was not beaten even once. He looked assured and ready, not just physically but mentally too. But still, there were doubts when he came in as a last-minute inclusion in the XI against Pakan after Shreyas Iyer pulled out of the match with a back spasm.
When Rahul strode out to bat on Sunday, the start given Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma allowed him the time for those butterflies in the stomach to disappear. Even in that brief stay on Sunday, he played two pull shots – against Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf – in front of square for boundaries. These shots don’t come unless one happens to be in good nick and these also happened to be the shots that Rahul was getting right in the nets.
But it was on Monday that Rahul showed how ready he was, stitching a big partnership with Kohli (who scored his 47th ODI century) en route to his sixth ton in the format. There may still be some question marks about his place in the Test and T20I squads, but if there is a format where Rahul has totally looked at home, it has been this. Especially since converting into a middle-order batsman, Rahul has been a different beast, able to switch gears with minimum effort.Most Read
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Having resumed his innings on the reserve day at 17 off 28 deliveries, he took a further 18 balls to work around how the pitch behaved. And fully assured that it hadn’t changed character despite being under covers for long, he brought out his trademark cut shot off the 47th ball he faced, a clear sign of him regaining touch.

From there on, Rahul not just motored along at his own pace, picking boundaries every now and then, rotating strike, ensuring that they didn’t hand back the advantage to Pakan who were missing Rauf as a precautionary measure. And if any more vindication was needed about his fitness, he showed with his running. Apart from 39 singles and six twos in his innings, the ones he ran for Kohli who had as many as 38 singles and 15 twos, as they stole many of those making use of the large outfield, showed India can breathe easy about Rahul ahead of the World Cup.
With Rahul going strong at the other, Kohli brought his A-game into play, matching him stroke for stroke and looked every bit the batsman he was in his peak years. This was the Kohli one knew as he dictated the pace of the game, constructing a wonderful century that puts him only two short of Sachin Tendulkar’s ODI record of 49.