Manchester Milestone: KL Rahul joins Tendulkar, Dravid, Gavaskar and Kohli in elite list

KL Rahul joins elite list of Indian players.

India opener KL Rahul became the fifth Indian batsman to score 1000 Test runs in England. With 1575 runs, Sachin Tendulkar is on top of the elite list, followed by Rahul Dravid (1376), Sunil Gavaskar (1152), and Virat Kohli (1096). At Old Trafford in Manchester, Rahul has a fantastic opportunity to overtake Kohli in the current fourth Test match against England.

Notably, KL Rahul wasn’t a regular fixture in the Test side until the Australia series. He was left out of the second and third Tests against New Zealand, but got an unexpected opportunity when Rohit Sharma missed the opening Test in Perth. Stepping in as an opener, Rahul impressed throughout the series and firmly cemented his place in the playing XI.

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Rahul has scored 375 runs in just three games in the current England tour, solidifying his position as a key member of the squad ahead of the final two games of the series. After years of ups and downs in the format, the 33-year-old has recorded two hundreds, highlighting an incredible run of form and indicating a turnaround in consistency.

The fourth Test saw England captain Ben Stokes win the toss and opting to bowl first. Oddly enough, no team has ever won a Test match after choosing to bowl first at Old Trafford in Manchester. But Stokes sounded upbeat and revealed just one alteration to their starting lineup: Liam Dawson started in place of Shoaib Bashir, who is sidelined for the series.

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In contrast, India implemented three changes. In the starting lineup, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Akash Deep were swapped out for Sai Sudharsan, Shardul Thakur, and Anshul Kamboj.