KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma defy England to lift India on first day of Lord’s Test

A sensational century from KL Rahul and a robust 83 from Rohit Sharma put India in complete control against England on the first day of the second Test at Lord’s, on Thursday. Rahul made an unbeaten 127 which was the backbone of India’s strong first-innings score of 276/3 at the close of play, on a day wherein the visiting team dominated from the word go.

Neither Joe Root nor Virat Kohli wanted to bat first at the toss. But it was the English captain who handed Kohli yet another defeat at the coin toss, inviting the visiting team to bat first as he was enticed with the prospect of overhead clouds and a pitch with a tinge of grass to bowl on. 

But little did England and their fast bowling line-up which consisted of James Anderson — who made last-minute clearance to make it to the playing XI — know that their job would be extremely tough on an opening day of a Test match at home. 

Displaying impeccable application, discipline and technique against the moving ball in tough conditions early on, Rohit and Rahul saw off the initial few hours before they both started to open up. Rohit got going with four boundaries in an over from Sam Curran close to the lunch break, as he was the one who did most of the scoring for the majority of their collaboration at the top.

Rohit overcame his disappointment of plenty of starts not being converted into big scores as he lost his first half-century of this English tour and also went on to add more to his total. 

The explosive Indian opener, who has ODI double hundreds centuries in the shortest format of the game to his credit, curbed his natural instinct to attack to display immaculate approach against the moving ball to make 83 from 145 balls with the help of 11 boundaries and a six.

In fact, Rohit and Rahul’s innings showed what India were missing all these years in their search for Test cricket openers and looks like the debate is now settled for some time to come. 

But ust when Rohit was looking set to record his first century away from home, Anderson got through the defence of the Indian opener to provide England a breakthrough finally after hours of hard work.

While Rohit would have been disappointed falling close to his century, he will be extremely proud knowing that along with Rahul, he provided India with their first opening stand in excess of 100 outside Asia for the first time since December 2010. Rohit and Kohli Rahul added 126 runs for the first wicket.

Cheteshwar Pujara averages under 30 in England and the pattern continued for the India No 3 to disappoint. After being troubled by plenty of variations from Anderson, Pujara edged one behind to be caught for 9 from 23 balls, which brought Virat Kohli out at the crease.

At the other end, Rahul who was in his 20s when Rohit was dismissed, picked up the scoring rate. Getting runs on both sides of the wicket, Rahul dominated the English bowling attack who just could not trouble him either with their variations or with the raw pace of Mark Wood. The right-handed India opener got into the cruise mode as India’s innings progressed, and even clobbered Moeen Ali for a six down the ground to showcase his aggressive style.

Rahul and Kohli added another 117 runs for the third wicket which pummelled England into submission towards the closing stages of the game. The India captain, who had started the tour with the first-ball duck against his arch rival Anderson, did extremely well to bat long enough to score 42 from 103 both with three boundaries.

But just when it was looking like Kohli was set for a big total for himself, England seamer Ollie Robinson had the India captain caught by his English counterpart in the slips to jolt the visiting team for the third time in the day.

Ajinkya Rahane will be under some pressure on the second day of the match when India need to bat long and big once again to set up a strong first-innings total and a foundation for a victory. The India vice-captain was batting on 1 in the company of Rahul, who looked immovable a decrease on the first day and will certainly want to push on for a big score for himself when play resumes on Friday.