England and India arrived at Lord's for the second Test on Thursday (August 12) and after a brief rain delay, Joe Root won the toss and chose to bowl first under cloudy skies.
Indian openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul added 126 runs for the opening wicket before the former was dismissed for a magnificent 83 by James Anderson. Cheteshwar Pujara (9) continued his poor run of form with another failure.
Rahul was joined by captain Virat Kohli, and that's when the opener took charge after playing well within himself as his partner Rohit was on song. The Karnataka lad eventually brought up his sixth Test hundred with a boundary off Mark Wood to register his name on the honours board at Lord's.
"A Class apart"- Cricket fraternity in awe as KL Rahul hits a brilliant century at Lord’s
It was a special moment for Rahul, who is making his comeback in whites with this series after sitting out for nearly two years. This was his second in England as he had scored 149 at The Oval on the previous trip in 2018.
He missed out on a hundred at Trent Bridge, getting out for 84 in the first innings, but did not miss out today as he played a near perfect innings for an opener in testing conditions.
Rahul was congratulated for his sublime ton by his girlfriend Athiya Shetty, who was in England with him since June before returning home. She posted a clip of the live telecast on her Instagram story.
Athiya's father and veteran actor Suniel Shetty, who turned 60 on Wednesday, thanked KL Rahul for the birthday gift and congratulated him for a memorable hundred at Lord's.
India ended the opening day at 276/3 with KL Rahul unbeaten on 127 and Ajinkya Rahane on 1. Virat Kohli fell for a hard fought 42 in the closing stages of the day to Ollie Robinson.
