Indian opener KL Rahul scored a gutsy century on Day 1 of the second Test against England at Lord’s. A knock of grit, patience, self-belief, composure, maturity, excellent technique, and flawless batting. And with this hundred, he broke India’s 7-year-old century drought at Lord’s. KL Rahul became the first Indian after Ajinkya Rahane to register his name on the honours board.
Rahul took his time at the start but once he got set he started playing his natural shots and looked more positive at the crease. The best thing about this innings is Rahul left the ball well and tried to play the ball late as much as possible. And as coaches and pundits say, When you play in England, try to score more runs through cover and third man region – KL Rahul did exactly the same in this innings.
This was Rahul’s second hundred in England. He scored 149 at Oval in 2018. And then he was dropped from the Test side for his poor performance. Rahul hasn’t played any red-ball cricket for the last 2 years and then scoring a hundred at Lord’s in challenging conditions makes it even more special. Rahul added 126 runs with Rohit Sharma for the first wicket to give India a solid start and then stiched a 117 run partnership with Captain Kohli.
Records Broken
Let’s look at the records broken by KL Rahul with his hundred at Lord’s.
1. KL Rahul became the 10th Indian to score a century at Lord’s.
2. KL Rahul is the first Indian opener in the last 31 years to score a century at Lord’s. The last Indian opener to achieve the feat was Ravi Shastri.
3. Rahul became the third Indian batsman after Ravi Shastri and Rahul Dravid to score a century at both Lord’s and Oval.
4. This is KL Rahul’s fourth century as an opener outside Asia. Only one Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar (15) has made more hundreds than him outside Asia.
5. Rahul became the third Indian opener, after Vinoo Mankad and Ravi Shastri, to score a century at Lord’s.
6. KL Rahul became the first Indian to score a century in the 2021-23 cycle of the ICC World Test Championship.