KL Rahul becomes fifth Indian cricketer to reach major Test milestone in England
In the fourth Test in Manchester, KL Rahul completed 1000 runs in Test cricket in England. He became only the fifth Indian cricketer to reach the milestone. The opener has the opportunity to surpass Virat Kohli for most Test runs in England.
Opener KL Rahul became the fifth Indian cricketer to complete 1000 Test runs in England. Sachin Tendulkar holds the record for most runs with 1575 runs, while Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar and Virat Kohli stand second, third and fourth, respectively. Meanwhile, Rahul has a brilliant chance to surpass Kohli in the ongoing fourth Test against England at Old Trafford in Manchester.
| Indian batters | Runs |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 1575 |
| Rahul Dravid | 1376 |
| Sunil Gavaskar | 1152 |
| Virat Kohli | 1096 |
| KL Rahul | 1000* |
Notably, Rahul wasn’t a regular in the Test team until the Australia series. He was dropped from the second and third Test against New Zealand, but since Rohit Sharma missed the opening Test against Australia in Perth, Rahul was sent to open. He proved his worth in the entire series and sealed his spot in the playing XI.
On the ongoing England tour, Rahul has amassed 375 runs in just three matches, emerging as a crucial player for the team ahead of the remaining two games in the series. The 33-year-old has already notched up two centuries, highlighting a remarkable run of form and signalling a turnaround in consistency after years of ups and downs in this format.
England win toss and elect to bowl
England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bowl first in the fourth Test. Interestingly, no team has won a Test after opting to bowl first. Regardless, Stokes sounded optimistic and announced only one change to their playing XI as Shaoib Bashir, who is ruled out of the series, was replaced by Liam Dawson.
India, on the other hand, made three changes. Sai Sudharsan, Shardul Thakur and Anshul Kamboj replaced Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Akash Deep in the playing XI.
India (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Anshul Kamboj
England (Playing XI): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Liam Dawson, Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer