KL Rahul scored a brilliant century in the Test match between India and South Africa at Centurion. He played an innings of 101 runs off 137 balls and led Team India to a respectable score. He played this innings at a time when no batsman from Rohit Sharma to Virat Kohli could stay on the field for long. KL Rahul not only led Team India with this innings but also set some new records. His century started as a wicketkeeper. In such a situation, this century also set a 70-year-old record.
KL Rahul is only the second Indian wicketkeeper to score a century in his first Test match as a wicketkeeper. Earlier, in 1953, Vijay Manjrekar had scored in his very first Test match as a wicketkeeper during the West Indies tour.
This is KL Rahul’s second century in South Africa. His first century also came in Centurion. He is the only foreign batsman to score two centuries in Centurion.
He now joins Sachin (5) and Virat (2) in scoring century-plus in South Africa. Apart from this, no other Indian batsman has scored more than a century in South Africa.
KL Rahul scored 50-plus in all three formats of cricket in his first game as a wicketkeeper. As a wicketkeeper he scored 80 runs in the first ODI, 56 runs in the first T20 International as a wicketkeeper and now as a wicketkeeper he scored 101 runs in the Test.
This is KL’s sixth Test century outside Asia. In the last 15 years, only Virat Kohli (13) has scored more centuries in this matter. During this period, Ajinkya Rahane also scored six Test centuries.