Manchester [UK], July 28 : Former all-rounder Irfan Pathan showered praise on KL Rahul, the unsung hero of India's hard-fought draw in the fourth Test against England in Manchester.
Rahul, one of the most experienced players in India's inexperienced camp, took the brunt on his shoulders to script a result in his side's favour. In the absence of batting bigwigs Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, the stylish batter to move to the top of the order and consumed 328 deliveries, more than 54 overs out of the 257.1 overs India faced throughout the Test.
Despite negating the threat by facing a myriad of overs, Rahul failed to convert his resilient start into a three-digit score across both innings. In his second turn, he antonisingly fell short by 10 runs after being pinned in front of the stumps by England Test captain Ben Stokes.
"KL Rahul played 98 balls in the first innings and more than 200 balls in the second innings. He almost played 328 balls across both innings. He has played a massive role in the draw. However, he didn't score a century. Gill, Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja scored a hundred each," Pathan said on his YouTube channel.
"But KL Rahul has become such an important player in the Indian Test team in the past few years, and he deserves it. He is a senior player of this Indian team, and he plays with that responsibility. I have said this before: if leaving the ball is an art, Rahul is the artist," Pathan added.
Rahul blazed his way to an elite list and became the second Asian opener to aggregate 500-plus runs in a Test series in England, after legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar (542 in 1979). He's also the second visiting opener to achieve that milestone in England in the 21st century after former South Africa opener Graeme Smith (714 runs in 2003).
In four Tests, the 33-year-old has garnered 511 runs at a stellar average of 63.87 while striking at 51.20, including two hundreds and as many half-centuries.
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