India opener KL Rahul was elated to be back in the Test side after he returned to the scene with a solid 84 in the first innings of the 1st Test against England that ended in a draw after Day 5 was abandoned due to rain on Sunday (August 8) at Trent Bridge, Nottingham.
Rahul got an opportunity to play a Test for the first time since August 2019 after Mayank Agarwal was ruled out due to concussion and the right-hander made the most of the opportunity by cracking an impressive knock of 84 runs in the first innings against England.
However, the opener could manage only 26 runs in the second innings, but he is looking forward to making the most of the opportunities coming forward on the ongoing England tour, saying he is really focusing on giving the Indian cricket team a good start in the ongoing Test series.
Rahul told ANI after the first Test: “It's just one match now. Yes, I batted well; it was good to be in the middle. It's been a long time since I played red-ball cricket, yes so quite happy to be back in the Test team and I want to make my opportunities count. It's important in English conditions to give openers a good start, so I am really focusing on doing that for my side.”
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During India's last tour of England in 2018, the Karnataka batsman had played a knock of 149 at The Oval following some poor outings in the Test series and took a lot of learnings from that series to perform well in the ongoing five-match Test series in the UK.
He continued, “Batting in England is a lot of fun. As a batsman, if you are in that mind space to go and enjoy in the middle, it's a great place to bat. Last time, unfortunately, I didn't score much in the last series but I took a lot of learnings from the series and come here to perform well. I want to give my side a good start and score lots of runs in the series be it opening the batting or be it middle order.”
Rahul also heaped praise on the Indian bowlers for the way they dismantled the England batting line-up, bowling them out for 183 and 303 runs before rain washed out Day 5 in Nottingham.
He signed off by saying, “The way we bowled in the first innings especially after losing the toss, it was a disciplined show by our bowlers. Shami and Bumrah started the Shardul and Siraj continued. All of them worked together and bowled in the right channel. The way they stuck to the plans was great to see and we got our rewards.”
(With ANI Inputs)
