KL Rahul joins Virender Sehwag in special list with sixth Test hundred, India take control against England
With this hundred at Lord's, KL Rahul equaled Virender Sehwag in the list of most hundreds outside Asia. Both Rahul and Sehwag now have four hundreds outside Asia to their names while opening the batting in Test cricket. Sunil Gavaskar sits on top of the three with 15 hundreds outside Asia.
KL Rahul became the first Indian opener to score an overseas Test hundred in three years. Incidentally, the last one to do that was also Rahul in 2018 at the Oval. The right-hander achieved the feat on Day 1 of the second Test against England at Lord’s on Thursday, becoming only the third Indian opener to score a Test century at the iconic venue. This was Rahul’s sixth Test hundred and the third one against England.
With this hundred at Lord's, Rahul equaled Virender Sehwag in the list of most hundreds outside Asia. Both Rahul and Sehwag now have four hundreds outside Asia to their names while opening the batting in Test cricket. Sunil Gavaskar sits on top of the list with 15 hundreds outside Asia.
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Rahul got the to three-figure mark with a boundary off Mark Wood in the final hour of play. Rahul hit nine fours and one six in his innings that oozed class.
Unlike his first innings knock of 84 in the first Test in Nottingham, where he was dropped twice off James Anderson, this was a flawless knock from Rahul.
He looked in control right from the onset. Put in to bat at the Lord's, the Indian opening pair of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma negated the overcast conditions on a good batting surface during the visiting team's first century opening stand since the tour of 2007. They added 126 for the opening stand to set up a much-needed foundation for India.
Rahul's knock was the perfect manual for any Test opener. He faced most of James Anderson's first spell under overcast conditions and allowed the England great to take the honours. There were more leaves and almost no attempt to play the drives or cuts.
When Rohit got out for 83, Rahul was batting on 33 off 118 balls, which screams about the patience with which Rahul constructed his innings.
He got to his fifty off 137 balls but since then, Lord's saw a different Rahul as he started to show his class with square drives and backfoot punches.
India lost the wickets of Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli (42) in the middle but that had no bearings on Rabul's composure. He continued to bat with authority even against the second new ball.
Rahul remained unbeaten on 127 as India went to stumps with their heads held high at 276 for 3.