KL Rahul shattered records of legendary players like Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid, among others, as he played a masterful knock in the second innings of the first Test match against England in Leeds. Rahul hit a brilliant hundred in the second innings in challenging conditions at Leeds on Day 4 as he carried the visitors' charge with the bat extremely well.
During his knock, Rahul has achieved a huge milestone. He has shattered the record for most centuries by an Asian opener in England in Test cricket. This was his third Test ton in England as an opener, which is now the most, pipping Gavaskar, Dravid, Ravi Shastri, Tamim Iqbal and Vijay Merchant, all of whom had two tons as openers in the country.
Most centuries by Asian openers in England:
1 - KL Rahul: 3
2 - Rahul Dravid: 2
3 - Vijay Merchant: 2
4 - Ravi Shastri: 2
5 - Tamim Iqbal: 2
Rahul now has nine centuries in Test cricket and astonishingly, eight of those have come away from home. Rahul played an extremely sedate knock with the English players challenging him and Rishabh Pant. The opening batter got to the century in the second session of the fourth day.
Rahul equals Sehwag, Vijay in another major record
Meanwhile, Rahul had equalled another major record in Test cricket as an opener. His knock was his ninth fifty-plus score in SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia), equalling Virender Sehwag and Murali Vijay on the list of most such scores by an Indian opener in the four nations. He is only behind Sunil Gavaskar on this list with the Little Master having hit 19 fifty-plus scores in SENA nations.
Most fifty-plus scores by Indian openers in SENA:
1 - Sunil Gavaskar: 19
2 - KL Rahul: 9
3 - Virender Sehwag: 9
4 - Murali Vijay: 9
5 - Gautam Gambhir: 7
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