Rahul Singh woke up on Friday morning thinking he needed to do something different. His side, Hyderabad, had been relegated to Plate Group and were taking on Nagaland in their 2023-24 Ranji Trophy opener. The stakes were low and players needed "extra motivation" to push themselves at a level that is a notch below where they aspire to be.
Rahul found himself in the thick of things, in the third over of the match, after Nagaland captain Rongsen Jonathan elected to field. Rahul responded by smashing the second-fastest first-class double century by an Indian (where data is available), off 143 balls, behind Ravi Shastri's 123-ball one against Baroda in 1984-85.
Rahul made 214 in all, his highest in first-class cricket. This included century stands with Tanmay Agarwal (80) and captain Tilak Varma (100*). Hyderabad raced to 474 for 5 in 76.4 overs, at a run rate of 6.18 before declaring in the final session.
"The mindset was to dominate and not just grind my way in," Rahul told ESPNcricinfo. "The only way we can attract attention, if at all that is possible at this level, is by doing things differently. By which I mean scoring a quick hundred or a double-hundred, else you are never going to be eye-catching. That was the motivation when I went out to bat. Glad it worked."
It was extra special because this was Rahul's first first-class outing for Hyderabad. More than a decade ago, he made his List A and T20 debut for them, before a job opportunity with the Indian Army forced him to make a switch to Services, a side comprising players from the armed forces.
Rahul, who moved to Hyderabad as a five-year-old, was recommended for a job in the army by Biju Nair, a local coach who led the army's cricket recruitment process in Hyderabad. And when the lure of job security clubbed with the opportunity to play cricket came up, he jumped at it.
In his first first-class season with Services, in 2016-17, Rahul finished as the fifth-highest run-scorer. Only Priyank Panchal (1310), Nitin Saini (989), Prashant Chopra (978) and Rishabh Pant (972) scored more than Rahul's 945 runs in 15 innings, including two hundreds and seven fifties.
For the better part of the next seven seasons, Rahul played for Services. Ahead of 2023-24, when he felt things were not working out, he decided he needed to play for a different team. His first port of call was his old side, Hyderabad. It helped that the team was at its lowest ebb and in dire need of experience to get them back on track.
"It wasn't a tough decision, returning to Hyderabad was my first option since that's where I grew up playing," Rahul said. "I was honed here during my age-group days by Vijay Paul [former Hyderabad batter, who has mentored the likes of Ambati Rayudu and Pragyan Ojha]. I also played for AOC, a club owned by the army set-up in Hyderabad. Luckily this year, club cricket was back on the calendar and scoring runs there earned me a chance at selection games where I performed well to get this opportunity."
Along the way, Rahul has also received a lot of backing from MSK Prasad, the former India wicketkeeper. Prasad had noticed a young Rahul playing at the Gymkhana grounds and invited him to play for his employers, Bharat Dynamics Limited, a government organisation under the Ministry of Defence.
"MSK sir also bought me my first cricket kit," Rahul said. "He has been a constant support for me along the way. He was always a call away, his contribution in my cricket journey has been immense, along with my parents'."
At 28, Rahul knows there is a lot of work to be done. He is pragmatic in saying helping the next generation of batters is more realistic than something more far-fetched, like the India cap.
"The goal over the next couple of years is to help Hyderabad win at least one of the three domestic tournaments. And mentor the next group of batters," Rahul said. "If we can do that, we would have taken some steps towards regaining some lost pride and becoming a more competitive team in the domestic circuit again."