KL Rahul sees shades of himself in 22-year-old Yashasvi Jaiswal, who on his first trip Down Under, seems to be in a similar position like he was on his maiden Australia tour 10 years back.
In the 2014-15 series, the then 22-year-old Rahul, batting at No. 6, had scores of 3 and 1 on debut at the MCG but came back strongly as an opener in the very next game with a eye-catching 110 in Sydney.
He also faced nerves but during the second innings in Sydney where he scored 16, he batted for an hour with Murali Vijay which eased him a lot.
Rahul is trying to play a similar role with Jaiswal what Vijay, the former opener and his national team senior had done to him back then.
Rahuil and Jaiswal shared an Indian record opening stand of 201 in the second innings in Perth where Jaiswal scored a classy century but Rahul played his part with a very useful 77.
“I saw a bit of myself in him how I was 10 years ago, opening the batting for the first time, lots of doubts, lot of nerves and you keep doubting your own game and a lot that happens in your head, and so all you can do is try and slow things down, try and take a few deep breaths,” Rahul replied when asked about his conversations with Indian cricket’s next ‘pin-up’ boy.
“That’s what was passed on to me by my fellow opening partner (M Vijay), I just passed that on to him,” Rahul remembered his Test hundred in Sydney, which was his second game of his career.
Having said that, Rahul doesn’t deny that self doubts could creep in time and again but he has tried to preach Jaiswal what he practices.
“I am not saying I don’t have all these thoughts, I do. But having been there, I know what I need to do to get past those doubts and thoughts you have in your head. And so whatever I told Jaiswal was what I have myself practiced,” he said.
Rahul felt that once he had played around 40 balls, Jaiswal seemed more and more confident about his game.
“Once he got past those first 30-40 balls, he started feeling more confident, he was seeing the ball really well and batted beautifully,” he said.
