It wasn’t long ago when critics with pitchforks out came at KL Rahul for his less than stellar form for India in Tests. Fast forward a couple of years, Rahul has proved all his naysayers wrong when he ended the recently concluded series against England with 532 runs in 5 Tests. Former India player Dinesh Karthik lauded Rahul’s performance, calling him one of the most technically sound players in the team.
“You got to understand. Just as the precursor to the series, the three big guns retired- Virat, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin. Now, walking into the series, there were two big names – one is KL Rahul and one is Jadeja. Obviously Bumrah for the bowling but these two were the big names in batting, experienced. And lo and behold, KL Rahul has always had this great starts to many a series but not finished strong. But in this series that young boy has grown into a man,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
“I think he shouldered responsibility. He is probably the most technically sound player across both teams and he backed his technique. Under pressure, he said I will stick to my game plan and back my defensive skills and play long and I will get runs for India every game in the series. There was zero pressure when he batted, very sound in his defence and beautiful looking cover drive as you would expect from the man but most importantly, the senior statesman, the man that Indian cricket actually would need throughout this series when he faces that tough Dukes ball that is coming, he was magnificent,” he added.
Rahul, who had scored 205 runs in his last Test series in England, smashed his ninth Test hundred in the opening Test at Leeds before he scored his tenth in the third Test at Lords. The Lord’s hundred also meant that Rahul became the first Indian opener and overall second batsman after Dilip Vengsarkar to score multiple Test centuries at Lord’s.
