India has been brilliant in their batting display on the opening day of the second Test match ongoing at Lords. After a blazing start by Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul, England did manage to come back for a brief period when Anderson claimed the prized scalp of Rohit Sharma and followed it up with the wicket of Pujara.
However, things got out of hand again as Virat Kohli came out to the middle and stabilized the innings with a fine knock before throwing his wicket away. India managed to end the day at 276 for the loss of 3, with Rahul and Sharma being the pick of the slew.
However, when the opening partnership was sailing through, KL Rahul comfortably took the seat of an onlooker as Sharma hacked away at the English bowlers at will. Ever since his introduction to the most extended format of the game as an opener, he has been untenable and has been India’s highest scorer in the preceding edition of the World Test Championship and the ongoing year by a proverbial mile.
Michael Vaughan, the man who is an extensive critique of India and never likes to mince his words, heaped a lot of praises on Sharma and his picture-perfect technique.
The erstwhile English skipper believes that it is just a matter of time for Sharma to rack up his maiden overseas hundred. He has been in blistering touch, and this year has proved to be a scoring spree for the Indian hitman.
The Indian opener came menacingly close to the magical figures only to be denied in the dying embers. Surpassing the mark of the half-century, he shifted to second gear and started hammering a few strokes hither and yon. He knocked 11 fours and a six in his brilliant knock of 83, a figure that underlines his ruthless brilliance.
In an interview with Cricbuzz, Vaughan said, “He was the aggressor in that partnership. I don’t know how Rohit Sharma hasn’t got an overseas hundred. I was in commentary today, and the producer was in my ear, saying he’s getting close to his first hundred outside India and I was like, ‘What? How has he never got a hundred overseas?!’. But, it’s only a matter of time. I’m sure he’ll tick that box at some stage throughout this series. He seems to have all the time in the world to play the strokes, leave the ball and get out of the way of any kind of short delivery. He’s in fine form.”
It was a blazing display from the opening pair, with Sharma and Rahul wreaking absolute havoc. The duo was off to a blazing start as they garnered 126 runs at the top spot. Once Sharma got dismissed, Rahul managed to belt out impeccable innings to stay unbeaten at 126.
The Rohit Sharma-KL Rahul partnership worked at Nottingham, it’s now working at Lord’s: Michael Vaughan
Vaughan also said that this opening stand would spark a significant difference between the two teams, and this partnership has bettered India’s opening standards after a handful of fiascos for a while.
He also mentioned, “I think that the opening partnership, it may be the difference (between the two teams). If you look at England’s opening partnership at Nottingham, it’s under a huge amount of pressure here at Lord’s. The Rohit Sharma-KL Rahul partnership worked at Nottingham, it’s now working at Lord’s in testing conditions. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t that the ball was doing nothing, it was doing plenty. And even at the end of the day the ball was offering something for the seamers. India has had a crackerjack of a day.”
Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane will have to trade blows with the new ball as India resume their struggle against England on the second day of the Test. Rishabh Pant is still to arrive, and Indians will hope he came to make a significant difference to the scoreline because of his aggressive batting stance.
