India opener KL Rahul admitted that his rush for the century ahead of lunch on the third day of the Lord’s Test led to Rishabh Pant’s run-out, and it was “not ideal” for India’s push to claim the lead.
In the last over before lunch, Pant was run out for 74 while trying to put Rahul back on strike to complete his hundred. The latter, having become only the second Indian to put his name more than once on the Lord’s honours board, went on to complete his milestone after lunch but fell immediately after bringing up his 10th Test hundred as India slipped to 254 for 5.
“There was a conversation a couple of overs before that. I told him that I will get my hundred if possible before lunch. And with Bashir bowling that last over before lunch, I thought there’s a good chance for me to get it, but, yeah, unfortunately I hit straight to the fielder. It was a ball that I could have hit for a boundary,” Rahul told reporters at the end of the day’s play.
“Then he just wanted to rotate strike and see if he could put me back on strike. But, yeah, it shouldn’t have happened: a run-out at that stage really changed the momentum. It was disappointing for both of us. Obviously, nobody wants to throw their wicket like that,” he added.
Rahul’s century at Lord’s, which followed his ton in Leeds and a half-century in Birmingham, is his fourth in Tests in England, the joint second-most by an Indian batter in the country alongside Rishabh Pant, Sachin Tendulkar and Dilip Vengsarkar. The Indian opener had also claimed a triple-figure score at the venue back in 2021, when India registered a thrilling win over the hosts.
He said that for the last two-odd years, he has also been working with a specialist who has helped him with reaction-time training used by Formula 1 drivers.
“In the last year or so, I’ve worked on a few mental drills. I spent a bit of time with an expert who helped me with improving my reaction time. These are mental games that help you get better with reaction time and things like that,” Rahul explained.
“I think a lot of other sports use it… I’ve seen this in Formula 1 quite a lot. I picked this up from one of the guys I worked with in Salzburg. I’m closely associated with Red Bull, so I had the opportunity to go there and work with some of the coaches. They work with elite Formula 1 guys and other adventure sports people who require a lot of this mental side of the game.
“So I’ve worked on that and I guess that’s the only thing that’s been different in the last year or so. I’ve always enjoyed batting long periods of time, even when I was growing up. I always enjoyed batting long hours and I could focus for long hours. I think a bit of that and a bit of this has just helped me in the last few years,” he said.
After three days of fascinating action, scores were levelled in the third Test at the Lord’s as England bowled out India for 387 in 119.2 overs in the third Test match of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series here on Saturday.
