Having won the first Test against Australia in Perth by 295 runs, Team India are leading the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 1-0. The two teams will now square off in a pink-ball Test match, starting December 6 at the Adelaide Oval.
It will be KL Rahul’s first appearance in Day/Night Test match and the senior Indian batter has figured out that the pink Kookaburra is faster, hits the hands harder while fielding, and is difficult to pick from the bowler's hand.
Rahul, who returned with knocks of 26 and 77 in Perth, is keen to learn as much as he can from the nets in the hopes of continuing to excel Down Under.
"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," Rahul said in a press conference two days ahead of the second Test.
"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."
The right-hander further shared his observations about the pink ball. "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 noted.
He had a straight answer when asked what is the best way to deal with the pink ball. "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."
Rahul has been speaking to the likes of Virat Kohli and others, who have featured in India’s four pink-ball Tests so far.
"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."
Australia’s pink-ball Test record may have been spotless, but the Indian team is more confident this time around on the back of Perth Test win.
"We have taken a lot of confidence. The pink ball is different and take confidence from that game. When you do well away from home in pacer-friendly conditions, you do get a lot of confidence, you do know what to do and you try and repeat those processes again and again," he said.
Rahul also opened up about a brief discussion in the dressing room regarding the strategy that the team would use.
"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.
(With Agency Inputs)
