KL Rahul silenced his critics with a magnificent century against South Africa in the first innings of the opening Test match at SuperSport Park, Centurion. Rahul stood tall in his first Test as a wicketkeeper batter when other players failed to get going on a tricky batting surface.
The flamboyant batter played sensibly and scored 101 runs to help India post a challenging 245 in the first innings.
Rahul lost his place in India’s Test XI during the Border Gavaskar Trophy earlier this year after the second Test. He faced a lot of criticism for his rough patch. However, with Ishan Kishan withdrawing his name and KS Bharat’s underwhelming numbers in international cricket, Rahul got the chance to keep the wicket in the first Test against South Africa.
Don’t you ever feel retorting to trolls who are merciless and at times downright out of line when they criticise you? KL Rahul was asked.
“What will I achieve (by) doing that?” he countered.
“Logon ko jo bolna hoga bolenge (People will say what they want to). If you are a public performer, performance is your only yardstick to stay away from criticism.
And about social media, the farther you stay away from it, the happier you will be,” a composed Rahul told media persons after scoring what Sunil Gavaskar termed as one of the 10 best hundreds ever hit by an Indian batter.
“If he (Gavaskar) has said that, it’s a huge compliment,” he said post his stupendous 137-ball 101.
The wicketkeeper batter revealed that during the forced injury break earlier this year, he worked on himself as a person.
“When you play international cricket, you are not only challenged as a player but also as a person because you have a personality.
So, when I was away from the game, I worked on myself as a person. Obviously, there were people to help me,” he said.
He felt that social media comments did affect a person but one needed to know where to draw a line.
“One who is hailing me today was abusing me some months back.
Anyone who says he isn’t affected by comments on social media is lying. But the more you stay away, the better it is for your mindset,” he said.
South Africa have their nose ahead and Rahul said it has become easier to bat.
“Today in the morning, when we’d batted for those 7-8 overs, I felt the wicket had eased a bit. But it can change here quickly with cracks opening out.”
Rahul said the Centurion wicket never allows a batter to “feel set” and at times one can score freely and at times one can’t.
Talking about the tricky Centurion surface, Rahul said that one can not plan a set pattern to play on such a wicket.
The key to batting in the middle order and playing long is not to plan too much, reckoned the 31-year-old.
“You can’t plan that much. There’s a game situation that tells you how to play in that time and moment. You have to remain free and empty. You need to be aware that you might have to bat with tail,” he said.
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