England’s ultra-aggressive approach in Test cricket has been the talking point and KL Rahul is no exception.
India’s stand-in captain — regular captain Rohit Sharma will miss the first Test against Bangladesh beginning Wednesday because of a dislocated left thumb — has been impressed with Bazball’s (England head coach Brendon McCullum) style of play and has promised positive cricket in the forthcoming series, which begins in Chittagoing.
“We won’t go in with any set mindset... At least for us we will go there and try to be aggressive and brave, try and get a result.
“The game is played over five days so it is important to break it down to smaller targets. In every session, the demands would be different but one thing is sure that you are going to see a lot of aggressive cricket from our side,” said Rahul during a media conference.
Rahul doesn’t think English style of batsmanship characterises “recklessness”. “As cricketers, I don’t think it is reckless cricket. They have certain mindset, they thought about it, they back their players and the players are doing the job for the team, so it doesn’t matter how you have done it.
“Cricket is changing, there is no set way of how this game needs to be played,” the opener said.
Rahul has enjoyed watching England’s 2-0 series win in Pakistan with a Test match still to go. “To watch these two matches between England and Pakistan has really been interesting. I am really enjoying watching Test cricket being played like that, a very fearless, taking the game on.
“But each team has its own way. All teams can learn a thing or two from the teams that are doing well. You can’t always have the same approach. You turn up according to the conditions,” he said.
The Indians will need to win its next six Test matches (two in Bangladesh and four vs Australia at home) to remain in contention for a top-two spot in the World Test Championship points table.
As of now, India are placed fourth in the table with 52.08 percentage points while Australia (75 percentage points) and South Africa (60 percentage points) are placed first and second. Sri Lanka, with 64 percentage points, is third in the list.
“There is a Test Championship (final) qualification so we will also have to be aggressive. We know where we stand and what we need to do to qualify for the final,” said Rahul.
Rahul also broke his silence on the “criteria” for picking the vice-captain, explaining Cheteshwar Pujara’s selection ahead of Rishabh Pant.
“I at least don’t know what the criteria is, whoever is picked you give yourself a pat on your back. Even for me, when I was named the vice-captain, you get happy, you have the responsibility of the team. It really doesn’t change much, everybody knows their role and responsibility and how much the team appreciates their contribution.
“Rishabh and Puji both have been brilliant for us... Itna jada sochte nahin hai (We don’t really think that much), he tries to take the responsibility. We carry on as a team,” Rahul explained.
He also hoped Rohit would be back for the second Test. “Rohit is someone that the team will really miss but we hope he can recover quickly and comeback for the second Test,” Rahul said.