A 17th international century in the first innings of the recently concluded first Test match against South Africa propelled wicket-keeper batter KL Rahul to join the legendary Sachin Tendulkar as only the second Indian player to score a couple of centuries outside Asia after being asked to bat first. Interestingly, both of Rahul’s hundreds have come at the SuperSport Park, Centurion.
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Not just in terms of touching three-figure marks, but Rahul even has the best Test average in this aspect among Indian batters (minimum five Tests). Rahul’s average of 48.12 is better than that of stalwarts such as VVS Laxman (42.49), Virat Kohli (34.94), Tendulkar (33.69) and Rahul Dravid (31).
Indian batters, who struggle to cope with conditions away from home on most occasions, have found a rarity in Rahul as his knack of scoring overseas Test hundreds under pressure is commendable in spite of a middling overall record.
KL Rahul Stands A Chance To Join Ajinkya Rahane And Cheteshwar Pujara In Elite Club
KL Rahul, who has played 40 and 42 Tests alongside veteran Indian batters namely Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwara Pujara respectively, now stands a chance to join them in an elite club. Out of the 35 Tests that India played between 2014-2022 in the presence of this trio, they won 20 and lost eight.
It is worth of a mention that seven out of Rahul’s eight Test hundreds have come outside India. While he has scored two centuries each in South Africa and England, he has one each in Sri Lanka, Australia and West Indies. Another overseas Test century will see him equal Rahane (8) and two more will see him equal Pujara (9) in terms of most overseas hundreds among Indian cricketers.
The right-handed batter, who failed to achieve this feat in the second innings of the last Test, should be eyeing the second Cape Town Test now. Readers must note that Rahul had scored 12 (35) and 10 (22) in his last Test at the Newlands. As far as the current Indian Test squad is concerned, only Kohli (15) is ahead of Rahul in terms of tons away from home.
Interesting Facts About KL Rahul’s Eighth Test Century
Rahul’s penultimate knock at the highest level made him the only visiting batter to score two Test centuries in Centurion. It is to be noted that only he and Kohli have played three Tests at this stadium among visiting centurions.
By the medium of this performance, KL Rahul also became the second Indian wicket-keeper after Rishabh Pant to register a Test hundred in South Africa. In addition to this duo, Vijay Manjrekar, Ajay Ratra and Wriddhiman Saha are the only Indian wicket-keepers to have scored a century outside the Asian subcontinent.
Furthermore, Rahul is the fifth Asian batter after Tendulkar (5), Azhar Mahmood (2), Kohli (2) and Thilan Samaraweera (2) to score more than one Test hundred on South African soil.
Additionally, the 31-year old player is also the only cricketer with 50-plus scores in his first match as a specialist wicket-keeper batter across all the three formats. In January 2020, he had performed keeping duties for India in limited-overs cricket for the first time. In an ODI against Australia, he had scored 80 (52) in Rajkot, whereas he scored 56 (27) against New Zealand in Auckland T20I. 101 (37), his latest century, came on his wicket-keeping debut in Test cricket.
