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- Oct 2, 2004
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Approaching his 100 at Lord's - amazing performance to totally thwart the England bowling attack.
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Approaching his 100 at Lord's - amazing performance to totally thwart the England bowling attack.
Brilliant hundred. This is gonna be KL Rahul's series. I predicted this before the start of the series only.
Australia was Rishabh Pant's series and this can be one for KL Rahul if India can win this series too.
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If that happens I would want him as our wicketkeeper batsman in tests also.![]()
If that happens I would want him as our wicketkeeper batsman in tests also.![]()
He will become captain of Indian team in tests after Kohli resigns from captaincy
Both KL and Pant proving their detractors wrong in last six months.
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If that happens I would want him as our wicketkeeper batsman in tests also.![]()
KL is doing now what Pant did to me in the Aus series: made me look beyond my biases and opened my eyes to their talent.
This England series is going for KL the way Australia series went for Pant. If KL can help his team win the test series in England, it will be a great achievement for him.
Both KL and Pant have grown in stature and can prove their detractors wrong by cementing themselves as not only all-format players but also winning them test series in England and Australia, the latter is already achieved by Pant.
Brilliant hundred. This is gonna be KL Rahul's series. I predicted this before the start of the series only.
Australia was Rishabh Pant's series and this can be one for KL Rahul if India can win this series too.
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Started really well, 2 brilliant innings in first 3 innings, then 5 back to back failures
Started really well, 2 brilliant innings in first 3 innings, then 5 back to back failures
Him and Rohi were easily the reasons we are leading the series in England.
Opening in England is the toughest gig in world cricket.
Rohit yes, Rahul not so much I’d say. Player with 6 failures out of 8 can’t be the reason for leading the series
Rohit yes, Rahul not so much I’d say. Player with 6 failures out of 8 can’t be the reason for leading the series.
I don't think you watched the series. The English commentators were praising the Indian openers as one of the main reasons India did so well in the series, unlike the England openers who struggled to put on a partnership.
Sometimes it's not only about scoring centuries. Opening is easily the toughest position in test cricket and there are a lot of times when an opener might not have scored a century or even a 50, but if he stayed at the crease for at least 20 overs, that would protect the middle order from being exposed to the new ball. I'll give you an example, Vihari I think scored just 20 runs in the 2018 boxing day test when he was promoted as a stand in opener. But he batted for the most part of first session and that partnership with Agarwal was hugely helpful to India winning that test. Yes, Pujara scored the bulk of the runs and Bumrah got the wickets, but that solid start in the opening of that test shaped the rest of the test.
Rahul didn't get a fifty in the Oval test, but he batted with Rohit for 33 overs in the second innings while facing a deficit of hundred runs in the first innings, that stand was hugely helpful for India winning that test. Cricinfo scorecards won't tell you these things. You have to actually watch the matches to catch these small but important bits of information in Test cricket.
You don’t need to watch full day test cricket to know the importance of staying in the crease for longer time in Test Cricket especially in England where the new ball swings a lot.No one watches full one day of a test match let alone full match smh. Don’t tell me U did. Rahul played really well but in first 2 matches, and two good innings cannot be credited for leading the series. Out of 2 innings he played 1 inning was in a drawn match.
But yes if u feel we’re leading in the series coz of Rahul, I respect your opinion. For me it isn’t the case
You don’t need to watch full day test cricket to know the importance of staying in the crease for longer time in Test Cricket especially in England where the new ball swings a lot.
I never said otherwise. Rahul did it in two innings out of which one innings was in a drawn match. Again it’s not just England, he averages less than 40 in every country and against every country apart from West Indies
He was very good in England as opener. Now, need to wait to watch him how he performs in the next series rather than going hard on him.
The version in 2017-18 had massive dip which messed up his stats, before that he was averaging in 40s. He went to England and played with clear mind, got the result as expected. Now, here he has got injured, that has no solution. But I am convinced that he is here for a long run now.
I am not being hard on him. He improved a lot in the England series. But what I don’t like is people trying to force their opinion on me that he had a successful series when he had 6 failures out of 8 in the England series. He surely didn’t get results as expected.
But yes I expect him to do well in SA as he is much better against bounce than against swing and seam.
He does have time on his side so that’s good for him and I do expect a player like him to do well. But until now he isn’t the player which we expected him to be
He averages 40+ as opener in England in that series. So definitely it is a successful series. Rohit was the best batsman on show though and if you make a combined team of both sides, Rahul will be his opening partner in that too.
He averages 40+ as opener in England in that series. So definitely it is a successful series. Rohit was the best batsman on show though and if you make a combined team of both sides, Rahul will be his opening partner in that too.
May be as per u it is a successful series. 6 failure out of 8 is not a successful series for me
It isn't 6 failure, not sure what logic you are applying.
He was the third best batsman in that series after Joe Root and Rohit Sharma.
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It means nothing. Just because English batters were utterly poor doesn’t mean Rahul had a successful series.
But yes, if you think a player who had 6 failures out of 8 innings and averaged 39 had a successful series, hats off to u. I respect u standards but do not force it on me.
To me it was a not so good series for Rahul
Good to note that you consider Kohli's series in Australia 2018 as failure too. Hats off to u..you really have high standards![]()
Of course it was lol. I am not a hypocrite to have one standard for some and other for some. The fact that you had to bring Kohlis stats from years back showed u have no argument lol
No, it was not a failure.
An average of 39/40 with 0 not outs is not a failure as noted in KL Rahul's case. Also, his 100 helped us win the Lord's Test.
Neither was Kohli's series in Australia a failure. He got a quality hundred in one of the tests and some more starts. It was a good series.
KL's series in England was marginally better than Kohli's in Australia 2018 though because he was opener, his hundred was a match winning one in Lords and his 80 was in extreme bowling friendly conditions in first test.
I get you are not hypocrite but you are clearly being harsh on players if you think an average close to 40 with zero not outs for an opener in England conditions is a failure.
Really poor from the management and the player himself
He will be 30 in 4 months. Should have been at the peak of his career but still averages 35 and just 2300 runs to his name. Really bad for such a classy and modern player.
Averages 40+ just against one country (Windies), and 40+ just in India and Windies
He has to somehow take his average above 43 in next 2-3 years before his downfall starts (due to age)
Really disappointed tbh, expected him to be the next THE Indian player after Kohli and Rohit
Very poor batsman. As they say, andhon mein kana raja.
Yeah. That's why I said andhon mein kana Raja!But his Day 1 century is the only thing that has kept us alive this series.
1-1*
Rahul is only a couple of home series away to take his average to 40 odd. He is an opener and not outs will anyways be less so it is hard to maintain great average if you are playing mostly away from home.
The good thing with him is that he has applied himself well to these conditions and willing to leave ball for hours and hours, a skill that some of our modern great openers in past didn't had in back days.
That is an important skill to have if you want to perform in all conditions rather than being dominant on flat pitches where you can play the shots on the up and go completely missing when there is any lateral movement.
The only time he showed consistency (in any format) was during a tough home test series against Australia! All other times he has shown huge high and huge low (usually starts a tour with a century OR ends a tour with century like Bhaag Viru Bhaag has assessed).
Looking at all these developments it is imperative that these guys (at least batsmen) should never miss any home test series (even if it is against West Indies or Bangladesh) giving the excuse of rest or anything. Batting is a "form" skill (compared to bowling which is a "rhythm" skill where they can reach their best over a spell...) because no batsman gets a second chance after getting out in a given innings no matter how well they are playing/striking the ball (unless they get a luck/life). For e.g., Rahane even today looks beautiful when he is striking the ball... Not many people would have noticed that he is actually hitting lots of boundaries and quick cameos in recent test matches and then looks like a stupid when he gets out! Only the confidence of "form" (even if it comes from home matches) can drive a batsman to get out of the fear of getting "out" in tough conditions & grow their innings!
It has become a fashion to pick & choose the international games these days and this has led to drastic downfall of all these batsmen (including Kohli). Home games are a must and it will always help a batsman to gain their confidence & help improve their stats (yes, even if some people mock that he is a HTB or minnow-basher!) and that confidence should rub when they tour overseas...
Another reason is not playing any warm-up matches in any tour and not enough practice/preparation sessions.
Yes, IPL has indirectly or directly responsible for all these developments, but blaming IPL completely is also unfair because IPL has also helped in improving our resources, professionalism, fitness, bench-strength, pressure-handling, financial-security, etc which are also equally important and we are seeing the positive results due to that (vast improvement in our overall overseas test results, even though our batting looks weak!).
The remedy for this is either reducing the number of games played in IPL or bringing the same rotation of players policy as they do in international matches. Like lifting the foreign players limit from 4 to 6 OR including a new rule that each team should have at least 4 uncapped (not played any kind of international matches) local players in their team OR not allowing Top-Tier Indian International Players to play first 10 matches, they can join for the latter decisive matches & knockouts/playoffs! If carefully planned this won't affect the financial-output of the tournament and instead strengthens it further and makes it even more interesting/challenging!
But I am not sure if they will keep Money/Finance secondary and put Indian Cricketing Standards/Development as main priority! (Its not happening in any field/organization on earth including even ICC. How much has IPL really cared for cricket's improvement compared to eating money gained from cricket played by India!) So we have to cope with all these cons of IPL while accepting the pros it gives!
I think players themselves should take the initiative and skip IPL matches (I guess they get the base payments) giving the reason of prioritizing international matches. If one player does that, hopefully other players will also follow. In this way, they could have moved to England early to practice for WTC finals against NZ. This is much more easier (if the change happens at personal level!)
Rahul, Kohli, Pant... its important for them to not skip any home test games even though it may look insignificant/useless matches on the surface!
The home series vs NZ, he was in line to play the two tests but had an injury.
Rahul has proved that in tough SEN conditions, he is the best Indian test opener of this millennium.
The home series vs NZ, he was in line to play the two tests but had an injury.
Rahul has proved that in tough SEN conditions, he is the best Indian test opener of this millennium.