India opener KL Rahul joined the elite band of batters to have accumulated 10 centuries in the longest format, seventh only to be the fourth such Indian to have ever achieved so.
During the ongoing first Test against the West Indies at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Rahul went past Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma, who each have nine Test centuries as openers.
KL was equal to the occasion and scored a very hard-fought 100 with 12 fours from 197 balls in the very first Test against the Windies in Ahmedabad. Rahul, though, could not cash in on his good start, getting caught at short extra cover from a ball by Jomel Warrican at the beginning of the second session, giving away a fairly simple catch to Justin Greaves.
Now he joins Sunil Gavaskar (33 centuries), Virender Sehwag (22 centuries), and Murali Vijay (12 centuries) as the fourth member in the 10-plus century club as Test openers for India. Gambhir and Rohit, meanwhile, have 9 Test centuries apiece as openers for India, according to Wisden.
He had last managed a century at home soil against England in December 2016 at Chennai, scoring 199. This is the fourth-longest wait for an Indian between two centuries at home, with Ravichandran Ashwin’s wait at 36 innings being the longest. 3211 days gap between KL Rahul’s first and second Test hundreds at home is the longest such gap for an Indian batter between two centuries at home.
Read Also:- KL Rahul New Century Celebration Explained: What It Means
This year has officially been KL’s real prime in Tests, scoring 649 runs in seven matches and 13 innings averaging 54.08, with three hundreds and two fifties scoring a highest of 137. His best Test series outing also came this year against England in the UK by finishing as the third-highest run-getter in the five-match series with 532 runs in 10 innings at an average of 53.20, scoring two hundreds and two fifties.
At the end of the first session day two 218/3 with KL (100*) and Jurel (14*) unbeaten. India leads by 56 runs in response to WI’s 162 in the first innings.
The top scorer for WI was Justin Greaves with 32 runs off 48 balls, including four boundaries. Mohammed Siraj took four wickets and Jasprit Bumrah three, bowling the WI batsmen out.
Brief Scores: India: 218/3 (KL Rahul 100* & Shubman Gill 50, Roston Chase 2/37) vs WI: 162 (Justin Greaves 32, Shai Hope 26, Mohammed Siraj 4/40).
