Rahul remained unbeaten on 47 as India ended the third day on 90/2 at Headingley.
After the retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, the onus is on experienced KL Rahul to lead India’s batting in the ongoing five-Test series against England.
Rahul got a strong start in the first innings of the series opener at Headingley, but failed to capitalise, departing for 42 runs. The right-hander added 91 runs for the opening wicket with the Yashasvi Jaiswal, setting the tone for visitors’ first innings total of 471.
Rahul had another impressive start in the second innings, and is currently unbeaten at 47*. He showcased his shot selection in the final session on Day 3 as India got to 90/2 at the close of play, with a lead of 96 runs.
Impressed with his exploits, the legendary Sunil Gavaskar hailed “total team man” KL Rahul and also revealed the reason why the latter hasn’t been able to fulfill his potential yet.
"Total team man. He has even been asked to keep wickets. He does that for the team, and that's what you want in the team. You see the way he reacts to the situation. He's got an equanimity about him, which is so rare because in today's day and age where everybody's got to be doing things to show that they have achieved something, his celebrations are also muted. One thing everybody agrees about KL Rahul is that he doesn't know how good a player he is. I mean, he would agree," said Gavaskar while speaking to the broadcasters at the end of the day's play.
Lauding his wide range of shots, Gavaskar continued, “He's got so much talent. Look at all the shots on the offside, leg-side, the flick, everything. All the shots, but he hasn't lived up to that. Now, that could be a bit of self-doubt in his mind or whatever that sometimes keeps the Bangalore boys from fulfilling their potential.”
The 75-year-old hopes for Rahul to come good in this series and gets close to 700 runs.
“Thrilling to watch off the front foot, off the back foot, then the straight batter drive, which we saw just now and the cover drive. I can rave about that cover drive because there's perfection in that. I hope that he comes good in this series and scores over 500, maybe 700 runs. That would be fantastic for India,” he remarked.
KL Rahul will resume batting for India on the penultimate day, alongside skipper Shubman Gill (6*), who slammed a century in the first innings.