KL Rahul grabbed the opportunity with both hands as he played a brilliant knock of 84 in India’s first innings in the ongoing Trent Bridge Test against England.

With Mayank Agarwal being ruled of the first Test after taking a blow on his helmet, Rahul was given a chance to open the innings and the latter lived up to the expectations of the team management.

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Having scored a ton in the warm-up fixture against County Select XI, Rahul was high on confidence and the right-hander shared a 97-run opening stand with Rohit Sharma to lead the foundation for India’s first innings total of 278 in reply to England’s 183 all-out.

Reflecting on his 214-ball knock, Rahul said his unsuccessful trip to England in 2018 made him realise the importance of holding back shots in tough conditions and that is helping him on the current tour.

"I used to have a lot of thoughts in my mind. I felt I could play two or three different shots for every given ball in red ball cricket, so that was something I realised, I had to learn to control," he said during a media interaction after the end of third day's play.

During the 2018 tour of England, KL Rahul had scored just 150 runs in nine innings before slamming a spectacular 149 on the final day at The Oval.

"Sometimes when the going gets tough or the wickets are challenging, playing against good bowlers, when the ball is swinging, you have to hold back some of the shots, so those are the things, I tried to work on, or those were the learnings from when I was failing in Test cricket," he said.

Rahul further said that sitting outside the Test team, he learned from the other batsmen, who were piling runs in the red-ball cricket.

"I haven't got to play a lot of red-ball cricket but sitting outside, watching the games, and watching batsmen score runs was good enough for me. I have been playing cricket, so the mental bit, like I said, in any format is it important that shot selection is spot on.

"I am happy that today I could go out there and show a lot of discipline, and get my team a good start and then put us in a good position."

Rahul also highlighted the challenges one has to face while tackling great bowlers like James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

"It is challenging to play here. They have a world-class bowling attack. Anderson and Broad, those who watch cricket, know how skillful they are, and they have done it time and again. Almost 600 wickets each, challenging to play against them," he said.

"It is fun playing in the middle. It keeps you on your toes and I quite enjoy being here. The weather is good, you don't get that tired as well, so l love playing in England," he added.

Apart from KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja slammed a half-century (56) as India took a significant first-innings lead of 95 runs.

England ended the third day, which was called off early due to rain, at 25/0, still trailing the visitors by 70 runs.

"It was a good wicket, I won't say it was unplayable, or anything, but having to play against the likes of Anderson, Broad in these conditions, is no batsman's dream, but I always wanted to," Rahul said.

The 29-year-old also made it clear that he is ready to play any role which the team management asks him to.

"Look, if anything in the last two years I have learned is that you need to be ready to do anything, I have been asked to do different roles, a lot of times and I quite enjoy doing it, so this was another opportunity for me to go out there and challenge myself," he said.

(With PTI inputs)