Picking pink ball from hand could be tricky, admits KL Rahul

PTI, Dec 4, 2024, 2:20 PM IST

Adelaide:  Gearing up for his first Day/Night Test, senior India batter KL Rahul has figured out that the pink Kookaburra comes at a quicker pace, hits the hands harder while fielding and picking it from the bowler’s hand is pretty tricky.

Keen that he continues to do well Down Under, Rahul, who starred in India’s 295-run Test victory with a second innings knock of 77 runs, is trying to pick as many cues as possible from the nets.

“Ball seems a bit more harder than the red ball and while fielding also, you can feel the ball hits your hands a lot quicker and harder,” said the veteran of 54 Tests and 3000-plus runs ahead of the Day/Night Test in Adelaide starting Friday.

“Same with batting, it seems to get to you much quicker than the red ball and does seam around a bit more than the red ball.

“That’s the challenge we are looking forward to. Since this is my first Pink ball game I am going in with a clean slate, go there and see what comes my way.” There has been some chatter in dressing room about how it is a bit tricky to pick the shiny pink ball from a bowler’s hands.

“If you look at pink ball, it tells you that it hasn’t lasted a long time and there will be lot of help for the fast bowlers and that we had in Perth on day one also, lot of seam movement,” he observed. Asked what is the best way to play pink ball, Rahul had a straight answer.

“Whatever players prefer. Picking ball from hand is tricky for some of the boys. Getting used to seeing the ball from someone’s hand is step one for a batter. And then you give yourself the best chance to react and be in good positions. That’s what batters have been speaking about,” he gave his insight.

Rahul has been speaking to the likes of Virat Kohli and others, who have played India’s four pink ball games — three at home and one in Adelaide in 2021.

“I don’t have much game experience like some of the others who played so far. I am speaking to the guys to try and understand what were the things they found hard and if there were any changes. ” There is no denying that Perth win has boosted India’s confidence even though Australia have never lost a pink ball Test at home.

“We have taken a lot of confidence. The pink ball is different and take confidence from that game,” he said “When you do well away from home in pacer-friendly conditions, you do get a lot of confidence, you do now what to do and you try and repeat those processes again and again,” he said.

He also cited a bit about dressing room conversation on the approach to be employed by the team.

“One thing that has been spoken a lot in dressing room is about winning sessions and not really worry about winning the whole game. Talking about day 4 and 5, it is about winning each session and do that again and see where we go,” he concluded.