Open and shut case: Jaiswal and Rahul making headway as a partnership at the top

The Hindu

a day ago

When Yashasvi Jaiswal and K.L. Rahul opened the batting in the first Test against Australia in Perth last November, a stopgap arrangement for all of one game was what it seemed. With Rohit Sharma, then skipper, choosing to opt out of that Test to be present for the birth of his second child, India needed a temporary fix alongside the incumbent Jaiswal at the top of the order.
There were two options heading into the game. There was Abhimanyu Easwaran, who had been picked in the squad as a reserve opener for precisely such a scenario. And then there was Rahul, who had just begun getting accustomed to the middle-order role in whites.
The man from Karnataka had been a specialist opener for most of his career, but he had played his last six Tests in the middle order, and had even peeled off a sublime hundred against South Africa at Centurion at No. 6.
As unjust as it was to Abhimanyu, the team management turned towards Rahul.
There was an element of risk for Rahul in agreeing to return to face the new ball, for he was opening himself to further instability in a frustratingly stop-start career. After all, he may have had to return to the middle order or face omission altogether for the very next game with Rohit due to be back in Adelaide to rekindle a partnership with the left-handed Jaiswal that had gone swimmingly over the preceding 15 months.
But Rahul, the quintessential team man given his flexibility and propensity to take up different roles including wicket-keeping when necessary, stepped into the breach as Jaiswal's opening partner. The first innings on a typically fast and bouncy pitch at the Perth Stadium didn't go well for either. Jaiswal was dismissed for a duck in the third over, his first aggressive shot against the left-arm pace of Mitchell Starc producing a thick edge to Nathan McSweeney at gully.
Rahul exhibited admirable patience against a probing Australian attack for the first hour and a bit, but Starc would make him his second victim with a faint edge to Alex Carey behind the stumps. In what had been a recurring pattern in his decade of international cricket, he was watertight in his defence and languid in his strokeplay during the 111 minutes he spent at the crease, but then at the end of his innings, all he had in terms of runs next to his name was 26. India went on to be bowled out for 150 inside 50 overs, and there was reason to fear the worst at the dawn of a long series on the back of three straight defeats to New Zealand at home.
When Jaiswal and Rahul returned to the crease for the second innings, they had been given a lifeline alright by the bowlers who had skittled out Australia for 104 to pocket an expected 46-run lead. But could the openers capitalise?
The answer was a resounding yes as Jaiswal and Rahul stitched together a 201-run partnership for the first wicket — the highest-ever by an Indian opening pair against Australia. With Jaiswal racking up a score of 161 and Rahul contributing 77, they set up India's mammoth total of 487 for six declared and paved the way for the bowlers to deliver an emphatic 295-run victory.
Moving on from Rohit
It's another matter that India still lost the series 1-3, but the seeds for the Jaiswal-Rahul opening combination getting a longer run were sown there and then. As the shadows lengthened and the partnership surged on that second evening in Perth, Rohit must have read the writing on the wall. Despite forging a good understanding with the young Jaiswal at the top of the order himself — their overall partnership tally of 1269 runs in 28 innings at 45.32 is the sixth-highest for India — the fact that his form had taken a beating in the previous few months probably meant it was in the team's best interests for him to slide to No. 6 and not disturb the first-wicket pair that had worked so well. He did just that for the next two Tests before getting back to opening alongside Jaiswal in the Melbourne Test in a last-ditch attempt at salvaging his form, but returns of 3 and 9 extinguished his hopes in what turned out to be his final Test appearance.
With the fundamentals that Jaiswal and Rahul displayed on bowler-friendly pitches in Australia — playing on merit, offering due regard to the new ball and cashing in when the conditions were ripe — there was little doubt by the end of that series that this was an opening pair that could apply itself and combat England in England. And their returns over the past six weeks, admittedly on decks where the balance was conversely tilted towards the batters, have largely vindicated that belief.
Across the five Tests in a thoroughly engrossing series that captured the imagination of the English public à la the Ashes two decades ago, they stitched together three fifty-plus stands and in the process allowed the likes of Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant to often get their eye in against a softer Dukes ball. With more than 400 runs each in the series, they pulled their weight individually too.
The tone was set in the very first innings of the first Test at Headingley, when they saw off a smidgen of movement for the English pacers early on and added 91 runs for the opening wicket in India's total of 471. In view of the considerable trepidation at the start about the ability of a batting unit in the throes of a major transition without Rohit and Virat Kohli, this was exactly the sort of stress-busting beginning that the dressing room required.
Their overall partnership numbers may not yet scream for attention: 624 runs in 18 innings at an average of 36.7. But after nine Tests in Australia and England, it is safe to assume that the challenges for Jaiswal and Rahul in the matches ahead will only get easier.
Complementary traits
Like most successful opening partnerships, there is a complementary set of attributes that the left-right duo brings to the table. Jaiswal relishes width outside off-stump. Rahul tends to leave deliveries in that channel all day long. The cut shot against pace is Jaiswal's bread and butter.
Rahul's classical cover drive is as good as any in the modern game. They may not differ physically in the manner that say the tall Zak Crawley and the diminutive Ben Duckett do, but their styles provide enough of a variance for bowlers to have to alter their lines and lengths.
Historically, India's partnerships at the top of the order in this format haven't been its strong suit. That Jaiswal and Rahul are already 16th on the list of most runs by an opening alliance for India is revealing. Unlike Australia with prolific pairs like Hayden-Langer, Lawry-Simpson and Slater-Taylor or England with Cook-Strauss, Hobbs-Sutcliffe and Hutton-Washbrook over the years, there simply haven't been too many in India that could lay claim to enduring success. Sunil Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan strode out in tandem for an eight-year span from 1973 to 1981, tallying 3010 runs in 59 innings at an average of 53.75. The only other Indian duo to score more than 3000 runs together were Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, whose 87 innings as a partnership yielded 4412 runs at 52.52.
For Jaiswal and Rahul to etch similar numbers will be a steep ask for sure, but it's certainly not beyond their doing. At 23, Jaiswal, with 2209 runs in 24 Tests at an average a fraction above 50, has the world seemingly at his feet. He has already notched up centuries in Australia and England, and rode roughshod over the Englishmen at home. Having made the move from the hinterlands of Uttar Pradesh to the bustling streets of Mumbai, the ravenous appetite to keep producing the runs stands out as well.
Rahul is at a very different stage in his career, but at 33, his best years could still be ahead of him. Technically, he remains one of the best going around as his high control percentages during the England series testify.
The issue with Rahul has been that he tends not to do full justice to his ability, but the responsibility of being the senior statesman in this revamped outfit under Gill is one that may have sparked a transformation.
While West Indies and South Africa will tour the subcontinent during the upcoming home season for four Tests, India's next assignment against its recent opponents is when Australia tour in early 2027.
If Jaiswal and Rahul are still at the top of the order then, you can rest assured that they have shaped up just fine. Not bad for something that began as a stop-gap arrangement, eh?