After his failure to replicate the success of Perth in Adelaide, there were growing calls of dropping K L Rahul back to No.6, but the Karnataka right-hander continued to enjoy the backing of the team management, and walked out as the opener at the Gabba.

For KL Rahul, the opportunity to open the batting in Brisbane, involved an amount of self-respect at stake, and the stylish right-hander responded to the faith of the team management in style with an innings that potentially helped save India from the humiliation of a follow-on.

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In Ravindra Jadeja, he found a dependable lieutenant, after yet another top-order collapse, and the duo navigated through the toughest of phases with a solid 67-run partnership before Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep’s last wicket rearguard kept India on course to salvage a draw in Brisbane.

Rahul top-scored for the side with 84 runs, underlying his potential of being one of India’s most dependable batters, especially in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) countries, where the pitches tend to have more carry and bounce in comparison to the placid spin-friendly turfs, back in the subcontinent.

For the Karnataka batter, the 84 at Gabba is no less than his 129 against England at Lord’s in 2020-21 and his 123 against South Africa in Centurion, the same year, as Rahul looked the most composed among the rest of India’s top order, in his defence and ability to leave the ball outside off — a trait that’s fading away with the advent of the fast-paced T20 formats.

“The only thing you can do in the first 30 overs is to tighten up your defence,” Rahul said after India had scraped past the follow-on mark on Tuesday.

“Try and respect that the first 30 overs is the bowler’s time and give them their time, leave balls, try and play as tight as possible and then really try to cash in once the ball gets older. So that’s my plan and that’s pretty simple,” he revealed.

“That’s a good thing about playing here in Australia. If you get used to the pace and bounce, you can trust the bounce and you can leave balls on bounce and that’s something that they showed us in the last game and they did that really well. Yeah, so for me, I mean, [leaving the ball] as important [as scoring runs],” Rahul added.

Rahul also showered praises on the way Jadeja applied himself to the conditions despite the Gabba Test being his first outing of the tour.

“He was brilliant today and he has been brilliant for us batting down the order for many, many years. That’s what we expect of Jadeja. Really happy that, firstly, I could stitch a partnership with him when he came in. It was really needed at that stage,” he said.

“Then he went on to score 70-80 runs with the tail, every run today was crucial for us to get past that follow-on firstly, and to see how many runs we could put on the board, and he made that possible.”

The Indian opener added that while Jadeja’s acumen as a bowler is highlighted accurately, the left-handed batter often flies under the radar.

“Often it’s only Jadeja’s bowling that’s spoken about but I think he’s been a great performer even with the bat. He has a solid technique and I enjoy batting with him. I enjoy watching him train. He seems to have his game plan really simple and sorted,” Rahul said.

He also spoke highly of the efforts of Bumrah and Deep, that eventually helped India avoid the follow-on, and raised hopes of leaving Brisbane with a 1-1 scoreline.

“Very good to see when the lower order chips in and gets the runs. That’s something we discuss a lot in our meetings. The bowlers work really hard on their batting as well. When it mattered today, I was happy that they could play some exciting shots. It was a great contest at the end, the last half-an-hour they batted. Not just the runs they got, but the heart they showed to keep away the bouncers,” Rahul said.

“There’s a lot of pace and bounce in the wicket, so to get behind the ball, defend really well, leave the ball, hit some nice shots, is really good. It will give them some confidence and give us as a group a lot of confidence,” he expressed.