Opener KL Rahul backed up his gutsy 84 in the opening Test with a brilliant hundred to break India's 7-year-old century drought at Lord's on Thursday. Rahul became the first Indian after Ajinkya Rahane and 10th overall to earn a place on the Honours Boards at the home of cricket.
Rahul brought up his second hundred against England in Tests off 212 balls as India reached 245 for 2 at the time of publishing this article. Rahul had hit 9 boundaries and 1 sixes by the time he reached triple digits.
Rahul went toe to toe with England's pedigree pace attack and came away with a stylish hundred, helping his side take control of the match in the final session of opening day.
Notably, Rahul also became the second batsman to hit a hundred in the 2021-23 cycle of the ICC World Test Championship. This is KL Rahul's 6th Test hundred and his second against England.
KL Rahul continued his white-ball form in red-ball cricket. He scored a fifty in the first Test as well. KL Rahul smashed a century for the Indians in the three-day warm-up game against County Select XI. The batting line-up failed but Rahul along with Ravindra Jadeja was the shining light in the first innings. (India vs England)
Indian openers with 100s at Lord’s
184 Vinoo Mankad in 1952
127*KL RAHUL in 2021
100 Ravi Shastri in 1990
Most 100s by an Indian opener in Tests outside Asia
15 Sunil Gavaskar
4 Virender Sehwag/KL Rahul
3 Vinoo Mankad/Ravi Shastri
KL Rahul got the opportunity as Shubhman Gill and Mayank Agarwal suffered injuries while Prithvi Shaw, who was added to the Test squad after Team India’s tour to Sri Lanka, has been ruled out of the first two Tests as he will have to go through hotel quarantine. Other than KL Rahul there was no one in the Team who has the experience of opening the batting in Test cricket. Cheteshwar Pujara could have open the batting with Rohit Sharma but as he is struggling with the form Team India opt for KL Rahul. (India vs England)
KL Rahul in 2018-19
Matches – 15
Innings – 27
Runs – 578
Average – 22
100s – 1
50s -1
Rahul last played a Test match two years back in 2019 when India were on a tour of the West Indies. Rahul was then replaced by his best friend Mayank Agarwal who went on to become India’s permanent opener.
Post a Comment