Rahul is adjusting to his new aggressive role in the T20s.

The opener has grown up putting a price on his wicket but is learning to bat differently by the team’s current philosophy.

KL Rahul attempted to heave Daniel Sams over midwicket in the series-deciding Hyderabad T20I against Australia last month but only managed a top edge taken by the wicketkeeper. Anrich Nortje bowled a 144 kph lifter before slipping in a surprise leg-cutter in the Guwahati T20I against South Africa on Sunday. Even though the ball held up and straightened after being pitched. Rahul adjusted and heaved it over midwicket for an 80-meter six.

Of course, these are two disparate and disconnected events. But the stage of the innings they occurred is likely a critical variable. The Sams delivery came in the first over, and the Nortje six came off the 20th delivery Rahul faced.

After ending his century drought against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup, Virat Kohli made an interesting observation.

“I was desperate to do something that was not my game,” he said of his efforts to produce big hits in T20s. Rahul is far more at ease hitting sixes than Kohli. But in some ways, both batsmen are similar in that when they are at their most free-flowing. They rely on timing rather than power to find the boundary.

And when the timing is right, as it was for Rahul in Guwahati. The odd muscled boundary will eventually come off. As it did against Nortje. Until then, Rahul’s limitations had come through sheer timing, square on both sides of the wicket, with trademark back-foot punches and pick-ups. Unsurprisingly, his 57 off 28 balls on Sunday was his fourth-fastest T20I innings and his fastest in nearly a year.

After a two-month layoff due to surgery and illness, amid concerns about his strike rate. Which has indeed dropped in the last two years – this innings highlights Rahul’s ongoing comeback.