KL Rahul starts his England tour with composed century as India A finish the day on a relatively healthy 319/7.
Disciplined KL Rahul starts his England tour with century.
After 273 minutes, he made his first error. KL Rahul went for a good-length delivery from England Lions speedster George Hill, leaning into it but playing away from his body. Emilio Gay pouched the thick outside edge wonderfully with a reverse cup at second slip as the ball was seaming away after beginning far outside off stump.
On his first day of the English summer, Rahul bemoaned his poor judgement as his first moment of distraction ended what had otherwise been a meticulously planned century.
Rahul has been confirmed to start as one of India’s openers for the Test series in England alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal following his outstanding performances during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia.
Rahul had opened the 2021 trip with a century against the County Select XI in the warm-up game. Rahul would go on to open with Rohit Sharma and contribute significantly to India’s success in the first two Test matches, even though he had scored that century while batting in the middle order. He also got his name on the honours board at Lord’s, where he was named Player-of-the-Match for his first-innings century.
After a span of four years, Rahul has once again opened an England tour with a century. After Lions captain James Rew put India A in to bat for the second consecutive match, Rahul had the responsibility after Jaiswal and Abhimanyu Easwaran were dismissed early. However, the pitch at Northampton was green, allowing decent carry, and the conditions were overcast, unlike Canterbury, where the ball had to be “smashed in” (as Lions centurion Tom Haines put it) to the surface to obtain any grip.
After being introduced to the team to assess their health in preparation for the first Test, which begins in Leeds on June 20, Chris Woakes and Josh Tongue shared the new ball. Woakes took advantage of the circumstances while Tongue was misbehaving during his first stint from the David Capel End. His sharp 6-2-8-2 period left the batsmen without a break. He kept the batters constantly on high alert, spotting sharp movement both off the seam and in the air.
However, Rahul responded to discipline with discipline. Rahul’s go-to tactics as a Test batter, whether at home or away, on seaming or spinning pitches, are playing late, keeping the bat tight to the body, meeting the ball beneath the eye, and not rushing into strokes. Rahul’s most notable strokes were the cover drives and pulls. He also used soft hands to steer, flick, and look in an effort to stop the bowlers.
In appropriate English conditions, however, a batter has no reprieve.
He had withstood Tongue’s prodding after lunch, when he hurried Rahul first with a kick-up delivery. As the inner edge trickled to the fine leg, Rahul uncomfortably guarded. Tongue’s drooping bat almost gave Rahul an edge in that same over, but Rahul escaped by keeping his eyes on the ball the entire time.
The most seasoned batter in Shubman Gill’s India is Rahul. He has a lot of responsibility now that Virat Kohli and Rohit have retired, both as the batting pivot and as a member of the leadership group. He will undoubtedly feel more confident after the century. However, as he discovered that day, he must ensure that there is no breakdown in focus.