Rahul: Adapting to Different Positions is No Longer a Mental Challenge, Can Bat Anywhere

K L Rahul Senior India batter Wednesday said that he overcame the "mental challenge" of being a floater in the line-up and is willing to bat at any position as long as he is able to play for the team.

Rahul was superb in the first Test against Australia in Perth with scores of 26 and 77 while opening the innings in the absence of regular skipper Rohit Sharma, who was on a paternity break.

With Rohit walking back into playing eleven for the day-night Test starting Friday, Rahul was asked the obvious question about his batting position.

"Anything (opening or middle order), I don't really bother who it is," the 32-year-old batter replied to reporters before India's training session here.

"Simply want to be in that XI, which means wherever they find a slot for me you go there and bat play for your team," said the cricketer having 3000 plus runs to their account for 54 Tests.

Rahul started his Test career in Australia exactly a decade back as a middle-order batter, who later opened. His batting slot in both the Test and ODI set-up was far from steady all these years and this affected him mentally.

"I have batted in many positions. It was a bit of a challenge early on, not technically but mentally about how to play those first 20-25 balls," he opened about his apprehensions.

"How early can I attack? How much do I need to be cautious? Those were things that were tricky early on."

"But now that I have played in Tests and ODIs all over the place, it has given me an idea of how I want to manage my innings," said the stylish stroke-maker, who has two hundreds in South Africa, one in Australia and a couple of more in England among his eight Test tons.

In his mind, he's made batting in Test overs so simple.

"Whether batting top of the order or middle order. If one can get through the initial 30-40 balls of an innings, then everything subsequently feels like normal batting, I try to focus on this," he explained.