Rahul ‘nervous’ about Test comeback

COLOMBO: Returning from a shoulder injury, batsman KL Rahul is taking “nervous” steps forward as India prepare for their first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle next week.

In his first competitive fixture in four months — a two-day tour game that ended in a draw — he smashed a 58-ball 54 — but felt there was still a way to go before feeling back to his best.

Rahul had injured his shoulder during the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in February. But he continued to play through pain and finished the series as the third-highest run-getter from either side with an aggregate of 393, including six fifties from seven innings. Since then, however, he has had to concentrate on rehabilitation work, forcing him to miss the IPL, the Champions Trophy and India’s limited-overs tour to the West Indies.

Rahul, 25, has been bogged down by injuries in his brief international career, and this was the first one that required major surgery.

“I am still very nervous,” he told bcci.tv. “The body is still very unsure and it keeps holding me back every time. That’s the biggest challenge coming back from injury.

“You know that you are physically fit and you have done everything that you can, worked really hard, you are feeling stronger, you are feeling fitter. But the mind always tells you what if it happens again, what if you have to go through the same grind for three months, what if your shoulder is not ready, what if you [have] come back early?

“There are a lot of questions, a lot of doubts and that’s the biggest challenge and fight for me. I have been enjoying each day and I have been a person who takes it as it comes. If it happens again, it happens again. It’s not in my control, I have done everything I can to get back. I tried to get my shoulder stronger, my body stronger.”