India's Rahul a member of rare group

If you look through the pages of history, for an Indian opener to go overseas and find instant success is a rare thing.

The select few who have managed to do so belong to a select group.

And in a short international journey that has spanned 18 months, KL Rahul has shot to the top of this list, becoming the first Indian opener to score a hundred on one-day international debut, against Zimbabwe on Saturday.

That came after Rahul scored his maiden Test hundred in only his second match, back in Sydney, the fourth Test of that 2014-15 tour.

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Coincidentally, it was the first time he had opened in the longer format too, for he had batted at numbers six and three in his debut Test in Melbourne, a tale of horror for the young batsman, who scored three and one.

"It was a very tough debut. I didn’t know what I was doing. It was horrific," Rahul had said of his MCG experience, in a freewheeling conversation soon after the tour ended.

"It was an unnatural batting position for me. I was too nervous, over-awed perhaps, and didn’t understand the match situation.

"I am used to facing the new ball and wasn’t ready for this challenge in my first match."

However, that match is remembered not for Rahul’s less-than-desirable debut, but for the shock retirement of MS Dhoni.

With Kohli taking over the reins at the SCG thereafter, Rahul was given a promotion up the batting order and he justified the same with a 110-run knock in the first innings.

"The team management showed a lot of faith in me after the failures in Melbourne. Everyone from Dhoni, Kohli, Ravi Shastri, Duncan Fletcher and so on, consoled me and asked me not to look back.

"And there is something about Sydney, I don’t know, but I just felt too comfortable as soon as I reached there. Confidence flowed from there and I wasn’t nervous while batting at all."

Even so, it was too much to expect the Australian team to go easy on him.

"There was this one tough spell from Mitchell Starc, and he made me skip and jump to his short deliveries.

"David Warner was chatty too. But I didn’t mind it at all. That is the thing about Australian cricketers; they are very competitive on the field and off it, they are quite friendly and treat you in a nice manner."

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Warner and Rahul went on to become teammates at Sunrisers Hyderabad during the subsequent 2015 IPL season – a time when doubts first surfaced about Rahul’s suitability to limited-overs’ cricket.

He scored just 142 runs in nine matches and as Hyderabad planned for their title-winning 2016 season, Rahul found himself moving to Royal Challengers Bangalore.

It was a move that did a world of good for his personal growth, granting him a chance to work closely with the likes of Kohli and South Africa superstar AB de Villiers.

"Once I came into the Royal Challengers’ team, I spent a lot of time with Virat and AB, asking them what I could do to better to improve my cricket.

"Their ideas and feedback did help. Once I got a couple of starts, I was confident. Then I got those three consecutive fifties, I knew I could go out and express myself and leave behind all what people were saying behind me about my limited-overs game."

It was a rich IPL season that saw him score 397 runs in 14 matches at an average of 44.11.

It was a far cry from his struggles the previous season, where he seemed to have gone into his shell after his Sydney hundred.

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Instead, he looked a completely different batsman, pushing the limits of his shot selection while still getting the basics right.

"I am not sure whether it is easy or tough to change one’s game, but that is how cricket is today,” Rahul said before departing for Zimbabwe.

"Even at 19-20 years old, we understood that this is how our game needs to be in the next few years, and I started working towards it from a very young age.

"It is always a challenge, as a person, as a cricketer in terms of your skill sets and you are tested every day. Especially in T20 cricket, where you encounter different situations in every new over, but these are the challenges one enjoys being a sportsperson."

These experiences culminated in an ODI century on debut in Harare on Saturday.

The innings was a pertinent reminder of how his game has progressed over the past year or so.

Chasing a dubious target on a not-so-easy pitch, he saw out the freshness of the two new balls, waiting until the end of his knock to change gears and attack.

That he could do so at will was a marker to the confidence he has garnered after an excellent season for the Royal Challengers.

As things stand, he has already provided a good headache for the selectors when they meet to pick the India ODI squad for their next outing against New Zealand this October.