The other Rahul

KL Rahul can't escape the fact of his name, or the fact that he plays for Karnataka. He's bulked up his biceps and covered them in tattoos, but it doesn't detract from the tall, lean silhouette that nature has given him. And like that other tall, lean Rahul who played for Karnataka, this one kept wicket at the age-group levels.

When Karnataka's regular keeper, CM Gautam, injured his finger during Punjab's second innings in Hubli, it was Rahul who took over behind the stumps. "Even if CM is not injured, and if he just gets a hit ,I'll be telling him, okay, go, I want to keep," he says. "So that's how I am. I love keeping wicket."

To add to all this, the two Rahuls also share a close relationship.

"It's the same relationship any Ranji Trophy player shares with Rahul Dravid," says Rahul. "He loves Karnataka cricket, and if you come to the preparatory camps before the Ranji Trophy you'll always see him at the ground helping the players, talking to them, helping them with bats and gloves and all. It's the same thing, but I go to him more than others, maybe. I keep asking him questions since I want to learn about batting and about technique, and about how he used to go about his innings."

When Rahul bats, you can see echoes of Dravid, but only if you really go looking for them. Where Dravid's drives began with a loopy backlift and ended with a wristy flourish, Rahul's bat traces a smaller, gentler arc. He doesn't lean quite as low over the ball. The effect is of minimalist elegance, especially when he drives straight down the ground.

He played this stroke frequently in Karnataka's first innings against Punjab, in an innings that laid the platform for a huge lead and Karnataka's win with a bonus point. It was a pleasing innings for pretty much everyone at the ground apart from Punjab's players and Rahul himself, since he fell eight short of what would have been a third first-class century. In his previous match, against Haryana at Lahli, he had made 98.

"I've learned that 50s and 60s, like last year, are not going to help me," he says. "So again, I've not learned much. I'm getting out in the 90s."

Rahul first played for Karnataka in 2010-11, and scored 61 on debut before losing form and, subsequently, his place in the side. He returned last season after sitting out the whole of 2011-12.

"I got dropped from the team and the next season I had an injury and spent a lot of time at home, not doing anything, not playing cricket," he says. "That's when I really worked hard and told myself that I would come back stronger and make sure I'm in the team all the time and never get dropped. That really helped, the time when I was away from cricket. It really taught me how important the game is to me."

During his time out of the side, Rahul also sought out Dravid's advice.

"I used to worry a lot about getting runs and getting into the team and stuff," he says. "He (Dravid) asked me what was going on in my mind, and I said this is what it is. He told me not to worry about things, he said you have to trust your ability; you've gotten this far because of your skill. He also told me that I should concentrate more at practice, and once I go onto the ground, all these things shouldn't be on my mind. You've prepared well so that you're confident that you've done everything you need to get till here, and that will help you get runs. [He told me] not to worry and keep my mind blank."

When Rahul returned, his mental approach had changed.

"When I went out to bat when I was 18 and 17, I didn't really have a plan," he says. "It was just go there, watch the ball, and play. But now I plan a lot about how to go about the innings and see the situation, what the team requires and expects out of me as an opening batsman, and how the wicket's behaving and the opponents."

He's also had to learn to shelve his plans when they've gone awry.

"[Before we went to Lahli], we knew the ball was going to move around the whole day and it's going to be a low-scoring game. We decided to be positive; there is no point just hanging in there. One ball's going to do something extra and take the edge and get you out," Rahul says.

"But then I played a couple of shots and missed, and realised maybe that may not work for me. I can't be a Mayank Agarwal or Stuart Binny and play my shots, and also there were wickets falling at the other end. So I told myself to wait for the loose balls and be a little more patient and work on the bowlers' minds. They kept bowling outside off stump and I kept leaving the balls. If I left 5-6 balls, they would come on the stumps, and that would be my scoring shot."

Rahul rates that innings as the best one he has played this season. "It was tough," he says, "we've seen the runs scored there, in previous games in Lahli, so I went into the game thinking that if I really am technically good as a batsman, I need to do well here. That was one of those games where I really focused and I really wanted to do well for the team, and the wickets were falling at the other end so there was so much more responsibility on me. I think that was very satisfying."

He adds, though, that he's "still very disappointed that I didn't get those two more runs and get the hundred."

After those two 90s, the hundred, his second of the season, arrived against Mumbai. It took his tally to 745 runs, putting him fourth among this season's top run-getters. More impressive was the fact that he had, once again, made runs when hardly anyone else did. The second-highest contribution to Karnataka's total of 251, behind Rahul's 133, was Stuart Binny's 38. If Rahul keeps that up, he'll give a lot of people another reason to make the Dravid comparison.

"I feel it's very wrong to compare me with Rahul Dravid," Rahul says. "He's a legend. He's always been my idol and I don't think I can ever be half as good as him. He's got over 20,000 runs, and if I can get half of that in domestic or international cricket, that would be a great achievement for me."