India vs New Zealand: Will KL Rahul keep his place in the playing 11 for 2nd Test?

Pune: In a couple of days, KL Rahul will likely find out if the team management persists with extending the long rope to him.

As talented as the Bengalurean is, he also had the privilege of the management’s trust through his injury concerns, and inconsistency.

Now, in the face of a stiff competition from younger legs, Rahul's place in the side raises some legitimate questions. In a sense, the man earmarked for greatness might have run out of avenues to be good. 

Of course, India coach Gautam Gambhir recently said the management would give their players the long rope to allow for a sense of security to set in, but it’s unlikely that Rahul feels the weight of that purported sentiment as of today.

Had India been deprived of such robust talent, Rahul’s 2981 runs from 53 matches at an average of 33.87, including eight 100s, would have made him a staple. That, evidently, isn’t the case anymore.

There is no room for redundancies in this team, and Rahul may have begun to seem like one given the rise of the youth.

After being pushed down the order since the arrival of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul could only be slotted at No. 6.

Again, had he been consistent and injury-free, Jaiswal would likely have had to bide his time or maybe even sacrifice his desire to open for the sake of a spot, anywhere. Instead, Rahul had to adapt to survive.

He was asked to bat at No. 6 and keep wickets in Rishabh Pant’s absence. This new slice of hope came in his 48th Test, last year, and he shone with a 101 against South Africa in Centurion in December 2023. 

Rahul, one would have assumed at the time, was the missing piece of the middle-order puzzle.

Well, since then, he has scored 238 runs in nine innings. Worse yet, Shubman Gill, who has five centuries in 27 Tests, and Sarfaraz Khan, who averages 58.33 in four Tests, are there to fill the void should Rahul be benched.

Moreover, Gill’s stiff neck seems to be a thing of the past; and Sarfaraz scored a 150 in his previous innings in Bengaluru.

There then is no reason to believe Sarfaraz will be dropped after that showing, and a fully fit Gill, all of 25-years-old, is the future. So, where does Rahul fit in?

Tough to tell, but India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate gave away enough to suggest that Rahul might not be fitting in anywhere, at least not for the second Test.

“Yeah, there's no point in sugarcoating it, there's a fight for a spot between KL and Sarfaraz," he said on Tuesday. ”Sarfaraz was brilliant in the last Test. I went to KL after the last Test and said how many balls do you play at and miss? He didn't play at and miss one ball and that's what tends to happen when you're not getting runs.

"There's certainly no concerns about KL, he's batting nicely, he's in a good mental space. But we are certainly going to have to fit seven pieces into six spots for this Test and look at the pitch now and decide what's going to be best for the team,” he said.

Doeschate tried to iron out the situation by diving into Gambhir’s long-rope credo, but, once again, he couldn’t help but indicate that Rahul was on the edge and tipping in the direction of falling.

“It's not like we're worried about his form. If you go on just the past three months since Gauti has been in here, he's keen to give him (Rahul) as much rope as we can. We have a lot of faith in him," he said. "But at the same time, it's a very competitive environment, with Sarfaraz getting 150 runs plus (222 not out) in the Irani Cup final. The decision will be what's best for the team, but we'll certainly back all the guys in.”

One would be remiss to ignore that Doeschate is paid to be diplomatic, just like Rahul is paid to do his job. By the looks of it, both of them aren’t very good at it at the moment.