Watch: KL Rahul Gets Royal Reception After His Historic Century At Lords

India is firmly stationed in the driver’s seat after the first day’s play at Lords as their batters did a phenomenal job. After a blinding start by Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul that saw India cruising at one point in time had to fight some stiff resistance with Rohit and Pujara departing in quick succession.

However, with the arrival of Kohli, the ship was stabilized again and India shifted to the second gear with a few exquisite strokes from Rahul and Kohli. As Rohit played the man of destruction in the opening partnership, Rahul weighed in the perfect anchor at the other end.

Once Rohit was removed, his opening partner took over the reins comfortably, ensuring a perfect transition to the middle-order, making things a lot easy for the Indian skipper. Despite Kohli getting dismissed just five overs from stumps, trying to nibble at a ball flying away from him, things didn’t go down from there, with Rahane playing an ultra-defensive innings for the rest of the day.

How did KL Rahul come to the fore?

An opening crisis for India shoehorned Rahul to the opening slot, and he came out with flying colours as he caused a lot of pain to the English bowlers in all the three innings that he has played so far in England.

Yesterday’s knock was very special for the hard-hitting batsman as not even for a single second did he seem to be in hurry and the way he knocked around with those extraordinary strokes were absolutely relentless.

He played a fine knock of 127 from 248 balls that starred 12 fours and 1 six. The sheer amount of diligence and tenacity displayed by the new Indian opener left the Indian fans and the management happy and content.

When he returned to the pavilion after the end of the day’s play, he received a hero’s welcome as the entire dressing room stood up to greet his brilliant knock. In fact, BCCI posted a tweet that showed the lion-hearted greetings that were poured on him.

There was even a scene that included his name being embossed on the iconic Lords’ Honours Board which is always a prestigious feat for any cricketer in the world.