Writing on the wall for K L Rahul?

The Indian team’s media manager was on edge during Rohit Sharma’s press conference on Sunday. He was being coerced by another member of their backroom staff to wrap up the post-match press conference. Everyone was suddenly very aware of the time: 3:30 pm.

Rohit wasn’t his cheeky self on the dais either, despite tactfully guiding his side to a six-wicket win in the second Test against Australia to go 2-0 up in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Something was amiss.

It was then that rumours of a selection committee meeting to pick the squad for the next two Tests started making the rounds.

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Turns out, the committee, chaired by former India opener SS Das due to selection chairman Chetan Sharma’s resignation, had arrived in Delhi from Kolkata after the Ranji Trophy final.

They wouldn’t have had much to dissect after all as India won the first two Tests by handsome margins, but the topic of K L Rahul would have cropped up. Rohit, who is quite close to Rahul, would have known this was coming.

Rohit defended his fellow opener at length. Even coach Rahul Dravid did so in his post-match comments. But a minor detail in the unchanged squad later revealed the management’s stance. While Rahul found himself in the squad, he wasn’t named vice-captain.

Subsequent reports suggested that Rohit has been given the power to pick his deputy as India look to seal a spot in the World Test Championship Final.

This move from the BCCI is beginning to show shades of what happened to long-time vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane a couple of years ago.

After averaging a shoddy 19.57 in 12 Tests, Rahane was relieved of vice-captaincy, and then was dropped from the team itself in a matter of months.

Rahul has scored 117 runs at an average of 13 in his last five Tests, and has now lost his vice-captaincy.

The Karnataka player, who averages 33.44 in 47 Tests, is no mean talent, but he has been up in his head of late, and it shows in the way he is going about his bread and butter.

You can sense anxiousness and tightness at the crease; he plays every delivery as if he’s still thinking of a delivery from earlier or what might come at him after. Rahul is not in the present.

And when you're in a slump such as this, luck doesn’t side with you either. Take for instance his latest dismissal on Sunday when a stiff flick off the back foot ricocheted off Peter Handscomb’s pads at short leg and lobbed to Alex Carey behind the stumps.

Rahul shook his head and dragged himself off the field, knowing viscerally that this could well be the last time.

See, Rahul has this uncanny ability to score a fifty and some whenever the topic of his exclusion crops up, but this time, he might not find favour for the vastly talented Shubhman Gill is waiting in the wings.

The 30-year-old should consider taking a leaf out of Pujara’s book and working on his red-ball game by going back to first-class cricket or playing the County circuit. But between white-ball commitments for the national side and the Indian Premier League, problems which the one-format Pujara didn’t have, Rahul’s schedule may not allow him that luxury.

There is no reason to believe that Rahul’s career as a Test cricketer is done. He’s still a talent worth investing in, but potential without performance isn’t pretty. It’s like getting pennies on the dollar, no one likes that feeling, not even Rohit and Dravid.