It's Day 5 of the 1st Test between India and England at Headingley, Leeds, and all four results are possible - win, loss, draw, or tie - or it could even end in a no result as rain is in the forecast for July 24. While this is a possibility, one cannot ignore the contributions from KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant - both of whom scored centuries, forming the majority of India's 364 runs.
KL Rahul played technically correct, textbook style of cricket as he put the bad balls away. The batter scored 137 runs before he departed and now, 8 out of his 9 Test centuries have come away from home. Seeing him open for Team India and perform so well has fans questioning: did taking away his opener slot lead to a dip in form - and is Rohit Sharma the reason behind it?
The batter scored 137 off 247 balls, including 18 fours, while he saw his partners lose their wickets - Yashasvi Jaiswal (4 off 11), Sai Sudharsan (30 off 48), and Shubman Gill (8 off 16).?
It was only with Rishabh Pant that India managed to control things. The two wicketkeeper-batters added 195 runs, and at that stage, India seemed to be batting England's win out of the window.?
However, Pant couldn't resist and holed out in the deep soon after the second new ball was brought into play. It did the trick for England as Pant was dismissed for 118 off 140 balls, including 15 fours and 3 sixes. The hosts then went on to take the last 6 wickets for just 31 runs, sparking another collapse.
Now it seems fans on X (formerly known as Twitter) are blaming the recently retired-from-Tests Rohit Sharma for KL Rahul's potential being wasted. The former India captain used to open the innings with Jaiswal, pushing Rahul down the order.?
Now, with no Rohit in the team and Rahul back as an opener, he has been able to play his natural game. One user said, "KL Rahul's Test career totally got wasted just because of Rohit Sharma. KL would have been the best opener in Tests if he had got consistent chances."?
Another added, "KL Rahul was denied the opening slot for so long. This is his ideal slot to play a long career. Hope it won＊t get meddled again. Hope he too will make it his own and don＊t gift his wicket away after reaching 50."?
One wrote, "We shouldn't have changed the captaincy from Kohli to Rohit in Test. Only this would have saved the place of KL Rahul for the opening."?
Another added, "As a Test opener overseas:
Rohit 每 2 centuries
KL Rahul 每 7 centuries
In SENA countries:
Rohit 每 1
KL 每 5
Rohit is a mug in Tests. Stop talking about Test cricket if you're a Rohit fan."
India (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna?
England (Playing XI): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir?
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