KL Rahul is undoubtedly going through a purple patch of his career. After being given the charge of ODI captainship, he got to captain India in the ongoing second Test against South Africa on Monday (January 3) in the absence of regular Test skipper Virat Kohli due to a back spasm. What else could the man-in-form ask for?
Everything is coming as a blessing in disguise for him. Rahul joined the likes of former India skippers Mohammad Azharuddin and Sunil Gavaskar in an elite list after he was entrusted with the responsibility to lead the Indian side in Johannesburg.
With this, Rahul became the first Indian skipper since Azharuddin in 1990 to lead the Indian team in a Test match ahead of his debut appearance as a captain in the limited-overs game. Some of the other captains include Gavaskar, BS Bedi, Ajit Wadekar, and a few others.
"It is every Indian player's dream to captain his country. Really honoured and looking forward to this challenge. We have had a few good wins here and hopefully, we'll look to continue that," Rahul said after winning the toss and opting to bat first at the Wanderers.
At the same time, he also equaled Mahendra Singh Dhoni. However, he missed out on breaking Ajinkya Rahane’s record.
In fact, KL Rahul, after captaining the least number of first-class matches, has reached the joint second number with Mahendra Singh Dhoni in terms of captaining India in Test cricket. Ajinkya Rahane is number one in this case. Rahane took charge of the Test team without captaining a single first-class match.
KL Rahul is the fourth cricketer from Karnataka to lead the Indian Test team. Before him, Gundappa Viswanath in 1980, Rahul Dravid from 2003-2007 and Anil Kumble led the Test team from 2007-2008.
This is the second time after the year 2005 when three players have taken charge of Team India in the last four Test matches. In September 2005, Sourav Ganguly took charge of the Test team against Zimbabwe in Harare. In December 2005, in the first two Tests of the series against Sri Lanka, Rahul Dravid took charge of the team. The third Test of the series was played in Ahmedabad. Virender Sehwag led the team in that.
There is also a fact that Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar are among those players who led the team to victory while playing the first Test in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) countries. In such a situation, it will be interesting to see whether KL Rahul will be able to make this record or not?
This is Team India’s sixth Test match in Johannesburg since 1992. The special thing is that in all the matches, Team India has been commanded by different players (Mohammed Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul). Team India has not lost any of these matches.
Rahul will later lead the Indian team in the three-match ODI series against South Africa which will begin from January 19 at Paarl.
He was named the captain after Rohit failed to recover from the hamstring injury he incurred during the home Test series against New Zealand in November.
