Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], October 3 : India opener KL Rahul joined an elite list of batters after bringing up his 10th century as a Test opener, becoming only the fourth Indian to achieve the milestone in the longest format.

Rahul surpassed Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma, both of whom have nine Test centuries as openers, during the ongoing first Test against the West Indies at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

During the first Test against the West Indies at Ahmedabad, KL scored a 197-ball 100 with 12 fours. However, he could not convert this knock into a bigger score, being dismissed by Jomel Warrican at the start of the second session, handing an easy catch to Justin Greaves at short extra-cover.

Now, he joins Sunil Gavaskar (33 centuries), Virender Sehwag (22 centuries) and Murali Vijay (12 centuries) as the fourth member of the 10-plus century club as a Test opener for India. Gambhir and Rohit have managed nine centuries as Test openers for India, as per Wisden.

He had last managed a century at home soil against England in December 2016 at Chennai, scoring 199. This is the fourth-longest an Indian has had to wait between two centuries at home, with Ravichandran Ashwin's wait at 36 innings being the longest. 3211 days gap between the first and second Test hundred at home for KL Rahul - it is the longest such gap for an Indian batter between two centuries at home.

This year officially marks KL at his best in Tests, with 649 runs in seven matches and 13 innings at an average of 54.08, with three centuries and two fifties and a best score of 137. His best Test series outing also came this year against England in the UK, ending the five-match series as the third-highest run-getter with 532 runs in 10 innings at an average of 53.20, with two centuries and two fifties.

At the end of the first session on day two, India was 218/3, with KL (100*) and Jurel (14*) unbeaten. India leads by 56 runs in response to WI's first innings total of 162 runs.

Justin Greaves (32 in 48 balls, with four boundaries) was the top scorer for WI. Mohammed Siraj (four wickets) and Jasprit Bumrah (three wickets) dominated the WI batting.

Brief Scores: India: 218/3 (KL Rahul 100*, Shubman Gill 50, Roston Chase 2/37) vs WI: 162 (Justin Greaves 32, Shai Hope 26, Mohammed Siraj 4/40).

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