The Legend of England on Stylish India Batter Missing Out on a Century
The Indian cricket team may have marched ahead of England in the first Test in Hyderabad, but their batters were quite 'generous', with Michael Atherton having thrown away their wickets.
Nearly all Indian batters, barring Ravichandran Ashwin, made a good start, but none could touch three figures. Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal scored 74-ball 80; his opening partner Rohit Sharma made 27-ball 24; and No. 3 Shubman Gill was out on 23 off 66.
KL Rahul, who batted at No. 4—a spot left vacant in the absence of Virat Kohli. He made it count and scored a sublime 86 off 123, but Atherton feels the Indian batter could have converted it into a big score.
Atherton feels that someone like Kohli wouldn’t have been so ‘generous’.
Atherton wrote, “England were fortunate that India’s top order were in a generous mood, but the situation at the close was very bad, even so, and could have been even worse.”
He further added, “It is hard to imagine that Virat Kohli would have been as obliging as his team-mates were here, and the biggest culprit was his replacement at No. 4, the stylish and gifted KL Rahul, who had a hundred for the taking before hammering a long-hop from Tom Hartley into the deep.”
Atherton wrote that he was surprised at how England deployed Jack Leach, who was sparingly used on Day 2, despite being their lead spinner on the tour.