Rahul opens up on the key to his Lord's success
England and India posted identical first-innings totals as the third Test heads into a finely poised fourth day at Lord’s.
India matched England’s first-innings total of 387, marking only the ninth time in men’s Test history that two teams have made the exact same score in the opening innings.
KL Rahul led India's charge with a stellar hundred, and helped India equal the England total with critical support from Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja. Speaking to reporters after the day's play, the batter discussed some tweaks that had helped enhance his game.
“In the last year or so, I have worked on a few mental drills, I spent a bit of time with an expert who can help me with improving my reaction time and some mental drills and games that you can play that help you get better with your reaction time and stuff like that," Rahul stated.
“I have always enjoyed batting long periods of time even when I was growing up, even when I played junior cricket I always enjoyed batting long hours and I could focus for long hours but I think a bit of that, a bit of this has just helped me in the last few years.”
Reflecting on his increased responsibility as the most experienced batter in the side, Rahul highlighted his drive for consistency.
“That is something that I have strived for all my career is to be consistent and perform on a consistent basis and be one of the guys on the team that the team can look up to and really count on.
“I am happy that the performances are coming through in the last few years, my mindset or my hunger or my passion towards the game has always been there, but in the last few years I think the performances are showing too.”
Despite a decent show in the middle order with multiple batters getting good starts, India failed to build a sizable lead with a collapse from 376/6 to 387 in the final session of the day and Rahul expressed his frustration with the missed chance.
“Even till just before tea time I think we were in a really good position, obviously me and Rishabh got that long partnership but we both got out, he got out just before lunch and I got out right after lunch, that wasn't ideal.
"So you had two set batters in the top five who'd gotten off to a start, so ideally you want one of them or both of the batters to go on and get a big score and that's how you sort of get ahead in the test match, so yes that is disappointing.
“A lot of players got starts and we couldn't convert it and get bigger scores, that would have put us ahead of the test match, but as it stands I think it's quite even.”
Rahul also reflected on Pant, with whom he shared a 141-run stand, who batted despite an injury and went on to score a fighting 74.
“He was in a lot of pain gripping the bat and obviously when the ball hits your bat there's a lot of friction and he got hit on the gloves as well a couple of times which was not ideal so he was in a lot of pain and he kept telling me that he was missing out on a lot of balls that he felt should have gone for boundaries.”
Rahul explained how he helped Pant keep his calm.
“I just had to tell him to weigh his options and see what are the best shots he can score boundaries of rather than getting upset with the areas he can't score off. He seemed pretty calm otherwise, he was in pain, but he was more than happy and more than willing to do the job and fight the fight for the team.”
The third Test, as part of the ICC World Test Championship 2025-27 is finely poised, with England heading into day four with a slender two-run lead.