‘New Mr. Dependable’ – Fans laud KL Rahul for scoring century for India’s 1st Test Match against South Africa

India and South Africa are currently locking horns for the first test match of India’s tour of South Africa in Centurion. South Africa won the toss and chose to bowl and the Indian batsmen gave South Africa a trail of 245 runs. The Indian top order collapsed and failed to put huge runs on the board, the squad was saved by KL Rahul. 

India’s middle-order wicket-keeper batsman KL Rahul scored a magnificent century to lead India to a defendable score. KL Rahul has consistently scored centuries back-to-back at the Centurion since 2021. In the 1st Test, KL Rahul scored 101 runs off 137 balls with a strike rate of 73.72. 

Rahul Dravid on KL Rahul’s performance Test cricket for India 

Rahul Dravid recently talked about the recent performances of KL Rahul and said, “I see it as an exciting challenge and an opportunity for him to certainly do something different. With Ishan (Kishan) not being available, the opportunity came up. We have a couple of keepers we can choose from. Rahul is certainly one. We have had this discussion with him, we’ve discussed this with him.” 

“You know, he is very confident, he is very keen on giving it a go. We do understand that it’s probably something he has not done very often. He has been doing it regularly in 50-over cricket. So that’s certainly tough, you know, to play 50 overs and then bat as well in a full day. That can take a lot out of your body,” said Rahul Dravid. 

“So he has prepared well, I must say, over the last five, six months. He has done a lot of keeping, even though it’s in the white-ball format. But this will be a new and exciting challenge for him as well. I guess one of the things here is that if anything there is not going to be that much spin bowling. Probably more pace bowling here than there is spin, so it will ease him into that role a little bit if anything,” Rahul further added. 

SA vs IND Playing XI for 1st Test Match 

South Africa Playing XI: Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Temba Bavuma(c), Keegan Petersen, David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne(w), Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Kagiso Rabada, Nandre Burger

India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma(c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna

Look how the fans reacted – 

What an innings. One of the best test knocks of recent times.

— Dhaarmik (@DhaarmikAi) December 27, 2023

KL Rahul was playing on 5 runs when Virat Kohli was out. After that, the innings left with the lower middle order and tail batsmen is really praiseworthy. In my view, this has been the best innings played by KL Rahul in his career.

Excellent inning KL Rahul. An standing ovation.…

— Satya Prakash (@Satya_Prakash08) December 27, 2023

– A solid innings by KL.🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/7dQwUf1cI0

— Shivaye 🔱 (@shivaye01) December 27, 2023

111* (106) Vs Pakistan on ODI comeback.

101 (137) Vs South Africa on Test comeback

— Koja (@Koja_hun_ywr) December 27, 2023

I wish it had come in the World Cup final against Australia instead

— Guhan (@TheDogeVampire) December 27, 2023

He is so brilliant in overseas conditions

— nomadic (@Subodh32080724) December 27, 2023

Congratulations Indian cricket fans.

— Sanjay kumar (@Sanjay_4M) December 27, 2023

It's exactly the kind of exceptional performance we anticipate from a player of his caliber when the team is in a tough situation. What a sensational knock he played! It was truly remarkable to see!

— Vipin Tiwari (@Vipintiwari952_) December 27, 2023

KL Rahul. He will achieve records for the Team

— Vikram Nayak (@allsportjacks) December 27, 2023