batting was not easy
Rathour said after the end of the day’s play, ‘It was a special innings from Rohit and it was good to see him scoring runs. He showed good spirit and it was a very important innings because it was not easy to bat on this pitch. Ever since Rohit started opening the innings, he has played some brilliant innings but his three hundreds stand out, including the 161 in Chennai, the century at The Oval and the century on a slow pitch on Friday.
Rathore said, ‘This is the specialty of his batting. He scored runs on the fast pitches of England but if we talk about his innings then he had to work hard to score runs. Usually Rohit gets runs easily after scoring a few runs in the beginning but here he had to work hard.
India may have taken a decent lead but Rathour doesn’t want to get complacent that the team has got the match in their hands. He said, ‘I don’t think so. You can’t say that until the last ball is bowled. Rathore was asked if Akshar was preferred over Kuldeep Yadav because he is a good batsman, to which he denied. He said, ‘He (Akshar) is a very good bowler too, so it (his batting) was not considered. Yes, his batting is a bonus.
Why is Rahul getting chances
Rathour also defended opener KL Rahul, who was included in the playing XI despite his poor form. He said- To be honest for KL, in the last 10 Test innings that he has played, he has a few centuries and two half-centuries. He has scored centuries in South Africa and England. I don’t think we are at that stage right now to question his place in the playing XI.
Source: navbharattimes.indiatimes.com
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