The almost innings: KL Rahul's grit, class, and a familiar ending

Fact: Four of India's five highest opening partnerships in England this century have featured KL Rahul.

- Somshuvra Laha

KOLKATA: Fact: Seven of Rahul's eight Test hundreds have come as an opener, six of them away from home. Fact: The rate of fifty and hundred conversion—seven hundreds and 14 fifties in 54 innings — doesn't live up to the promise Rahul has long held. Almost 60 Tests into his career, that remains an enduring truth. Friday, then, added another chapter to the theme of what could have been — had Rahul been more judicious.

Vexing, indeed, was how it all ended. Until that wide, full-pitched delivery from Brydon Carse found a thick edge en route to Joe Root, Rahul looked to have his game locked in. There was that one expansive drive in the fourth over off Carse, where a thick outside edge flew through the gully region, but little after that suggested Rahul was vulnerable. He shouldered arms to deliveries that nipped away sharply, blocked those that came in, and appeared completely in the zone — one that could nag England into rethinking their tactics.