And Indian fans returned to a familiar sight on Sunday when KL Rahul raised his bat to acknowledge his fifty on last Day of the Duleep Trophy curtain-raiser. While his ‘India A’ team lost the encounter quite comfortably at the end, KL Rahul was a bright spark. He top-scored for the ‘A’ team across both the innings, making 94 runs in total.
KL Rahul & his gutsy 57 in Duleep Trophy
The M Chinnaswamy Stadium had all the juice for the pacers across all four days. And to utilise this, all three of Mukesh Kumar, Yash Dayal and Navdeep Saini wreaked havoc, consistently troubling the star-studded India A batting line-up. Mayank Agarwal left early, Riyan Parag’s blistering cameo came to a premature end before skipper Shubman Gill also edged one to the keeper.
275 was the target for India A but losing regular wickets didn’t allow them to go all in for the chase. KL Rahul, meanwhile, held his fort and tried to save the match alongside the lower-order. They were 99/6 but Rahul pulled up his vigilance and stood for 121 balls.
While one can criticise that Rahul could’ve looked to score quicker in order to go for the 275-run hunt, the Indian superstar eyed to stitch up stands with the lower-order and save the game.
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IND vs BAN sure shot for KL Rahul?
Ever since Yashasvi Jaiswal came to the fore and tormented every bowling attack he faced, KL Rahul has never been looked at as an opener. Instead, the route for him in Tests has been similar to his white-ball avenue. And that is to make himself a viable middle-order option. While he even kept in red-ball cricket when Rishabh Pant was unavailable during the South Africa tour, KL Rahul is perhaps in the frontline to bat at number five in the upcoming India vs Bangladesh Tests.
Although Sarfaraz Khan had a breakout maiden Test series against England, the seniority and his fifty in Duleep Trophy might pip Rahul ahead in the race.
