The Indian cricket team was clear favorites to win the opening Test of the ongoing five-match Test series against England, but rain played spoilsport and the first Test ended in a draw after Day 5 washed out on Sunday (August 8) at Trent Bridge, Nottingham.
England and Team India both won 4 points each in the ongoing second cycle of the ICC World Test Championship, but the tourists would be taking a lot more positives from the first Test than the hosts, and former cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra has picked the two biggest positives from the drawn game.
The cricket analyst has named KL Rahul as the biggest positives for India. Rahul made a stunning comeback to the Test side with a brilliant knock of 84 runs in the first Test.
Chopra said on his YouTube channel, “The biggest positive has to be KL Rahul. There were eyes trained on him, Shubman Gill was supposed to open first but got injured, Mayank Agarwal was going to open and he had a concussion. Prithvi Shaw was called, in fact, they were even calling Devdutt Padikkal.”
He further added, “Till the time Prithvi reached, the first match started and KL Rahul got a chance. Opening is a tough occupation if we talk about the conditions in England, especially if you are under pressure and he has struggled after 2018.
Therefore, he became a middle-order batsman. But here he got an opportunity to open not by design but by default. And it is said, when God wants to give you something, he finds his way. He got two lifelines in the first innings but the 84 runs were very important and even in the second innings his batting was top class.”
The commentator said Ravindra Jadeja is another big positive for India.
He further explained: “The second positive was Sir Ravindra Jadeja. There were great expectations from him and some spotlight over his spot as well. The reason for that is you didn't play Ashwin.”
Chopra continued, “You know that if you don't get runs from the lower-middle order, you will be stuck. This is the only reason he is playing because if you compare the bowling you will obviously go for Ravichandran Ashwin. He didn't get a wicket but when he got to bat, he played a pivotal role.”
He signed off by saying that Rishabh Pant's wicket-keeping was another plus point for the tourists.
