It was an innings that had grind written all over it. First, the thunderbolts from Mitchell Starc, then the nagging line and lengths from Josh Hazlewood and then the spitting turn off the pitch from Nathan Lyon. KL Rahul countered it all with a sense of calm and no panic. There was flourish and fervor in his innings of 90 that lasted for 205 balls and more than half a day. Even as wickets kept tumbling at the other end, Rahul went about his business hitting the bad balls for runs and putting his head down to the good ones. Rahul later agreed it was his most challenging and toughest innings thus far. “This is by far the most difficult innings I have had to play in Test cricket,” he said speaking to BCCI.TV. “The wicket wasn’t the easiest to play on. It was challenging but I was relishing the challenge. The team needed me to stay there for as long as I could and get some runs on board. That was the role and responsibility given to me, so I tried to play that out to the best of my ability. This is my home ground and I have played on wickets like these before and I had a fair idea of how to play on this wicket. I was looking to put the loose balls away and give the good balls the respect it demanded. I am happy with the way I batted.” Not before countering a magnificent spell of spin bowling from Nathan Lyon, Rahul had to counter a barrage of short deliveries from Mitchell Starc. It got him into awkward positions but he managed to wade off that morning spell of Starc with great effectiveness. For Rahul, the Starc attack wasn’t alien. “This is not the first time that I have been up against Mitchell Starc and he has bounced me. He did the same in Sydney when I was batting and it was like reliving Sydney in January 2015 again. It was good fun to come up against him and face that challenge. He is the number one fast bowler in the world and I was having a lot of fun playing him. “The wicket was sticky in the morning compared to how it played in the other two sessions. The ball was holding on to the wicket and was two-paced a little bit. That is why I was finding it difficult to position myself against his bouncers.” Exit Starc and enter Lyon. The spinner picked eight in the day and Rahul agreed India needed to comeback stronger in the second essay while playing him. “Lyon had the rough in his favour and we all know he bowls fast into the rough and it did cause a few problems for the batsmen. He got eight wickets but we have to look forward and see how we can tackle him in the second innings.” One of the biggest talking points of the day was captain Virat Kohli’s dismissal. Virat had shouldered arms to a Lyon off break that looked like crashing into the middle and leg stump. Virat decided to review it and was adjudged leg before. Rahul gave an account of the review straight from the 22 yards. “We took a chance because Virat is the best batsman in our line-up. I did tell him that it looked really out and for it to be overturned it had to be spinning a long way. I asked him if he felt it was spinning and he said he did think it spun a little. So, we decided to go upstairs.” Wickets tumbled at the other end after Kohli’s dismissal and Rahul began to run out of partners. Rahul said he had to try and up the ante for which he had to go for the big shots. The moment he went for a big one, his shoulder began to act up which saw him wincing in pain. Testing it was for him, since he had to curb himself from playing a few shots at the same time keep the team’s interests at the forefront. “It is not the most comfortable feeling to play with a bad shoulder. Towards the end when I had to take on the bowlers and look for runs, that is when my shoulder started acting up. It is sore right now but I am sure it will go away. During the innings, I had to restrict myself from playing a lot of shots. But I knew going into the game that I will be restricted in a few of my shot making. That is what the physio and myself discussed and put it across to the coach as well. I was really confident going into the game that I could still manage with sacrificing a few shots. I have all the shots in the book so one or two shouldn’t have really mattered.” Playing his first Test at home, Rahul fell ten short of what could have been a memorable ton. Individual milestones aside, Rahul hoped for a strong comeback on Day 2. “Getting out in the 90s is always painful for a batsman. More than the disappointment of missing out on an individual milestone, I was disappointed that I couldn’t add more runs to the team’s total. I am sure there will be a lot more opportunities coming my way and I am certain I can convert those 60s and 90s into big hundreds. We are hoping to have a good second day and second innings. Hopefully, we can pull things back and win this game.”