Opener K.L. Rahul on verge of completing 9,000 international runs for India

As the fourth Test against England at Manchester draws closer, a key point of attention will be the Indian opener KL Rahul, who has had a potentially career-defining series in England so far and stands just 60 runs away from completing 9,000 international runs.

With the series in favour of England by 2-1, India will have to play out of their skins to defy this equally competitive English unit.

For that, it is important that Rahul absorbs all the pressure while opening the batting, makes the new ball old, balances out his classy cover drives with some careful leaves.

In his international career so far, Rahul has scored 8,940 runs in 218 matches in 254 innings at an average of 39.73, with 19 centuries and 58 fifties. His best score is 199. He is the 16th-highest run-getter for India in all-time lists.

Despite his elite technique, composure and variety of shots, Tests has surprisingly been his least unsuccessful format, with 3,632 runs in 61 matches and 107 innings at an average of 35.26, with 10 centuries and 18 fifties, with a best score of 199. His inconsistency and consequent stagnation of batting average have come under scrutiny, to the point even KL admitted that looking at his batting average “hurts him”.

He has been much more successful in ODIs, with 3,043 runs in 85 matches and 79 innings at an average of 49.08, a strike rate of 88.17, with seven centuries and 18 fifties. In T20Is, he is India’s fourth-highest run-getter, with 2,265 runs in 72 matches and 68 innings at an average of 37.75 and a strike rate of almost 140, with two centuries and 22 fifties.

However, he has not played T20Is since a disastrous T20 WC 2022 in Australia, as his scoring rate has at times looked outdated in comparison to a younger, fearless and hard-hitting lot of T20I specialists in India. In the ongoing series, Rahul has scored 375 runs in three matches and six innings at an average of 62.50, with a best score of 137, two centuries and a fifty. He is the fourth-highest run-getter in the series. This series has greatly improved his batting average in England, taking it from the 30s to the early 40s. In 12 Tests in England, he has made 989 runs at an average of 41.20, with four centuries and two fifties in 24 innings. His best score in England is 149.However, he is one of India’s most dependable batters outside Asia in spite of ups and downs in his form, as nine of his ten Test tons have come away from home. Most importantly, seven of his Test centuries have come in South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia (SENA) countries, with a century in Australia and two in South Africa.

With two matches remaining, Rahul has every chance to make this series his best-ever in Test statistically. His best Test series has been the 2016-17 series against Australia at home, with 393 runs in four matches and seven innings at an average of 65.50, with six fifties to his name and best score of 90.So far during this tour, KL has faced 670 balls, the fourth-highest by an Indian opener in England during a tour since 1990. With two more matches left, he has every chance to overtake his own tally of 735 deliveries during 2021 tour, Rohit Sharma’s 866 deliveries faced during the same tour and Murali Vijay’s all-time record of 1,054 balls back in 2014.

As a senior within the team, Rahul has served as a perfect link between the youngsters and the old generation. While critics rightfully bashed him earlier for losing momentum and runs with each passing away Test match, Rahul has silenced them with his bat this time around, registering a fifty-plus score at least in every Test.