Sanjay Manjrekar reveals reason behind KL Rahul’s success on England tour

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar said opener Rahul has worked on his technique, which is helping him reap rewards in the ongoing England tour. Manjrekar noted that Rahul was a bit tentative around the off-stump but he has improved his weakness.

The cricketer-turned-commentator also highlighted that Rahul was not converting his good form in the latter half of the series but he has been able to to do that against England.

The flamboyant batter scored a fine knock of 100 runs off 177 balls in the first innings of the third Test match at Lord’s on Saturday. The Indian opener added a crucial alliance of 141 runs with vice-captain Rishabh Pant for the fourth wicket.

Rahul has scored 336 runs in five innings of the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar series against England at an impressive average of 67.20.

Sanjay Manjrekar said on ESPN Cricinfo, “It’s something we know about KL Rahul, there are no obvious weaknesses, except for the little period he was uncertain outside off. Once he worked that out, you couldn’t find a loophole in his batting, defense, or attack. The only issue he had was of carrying his form and he has done that beautifully in this series. So, he has also corrected that one little flaw that he had.”

“Perfection of batting to be very honest. He hasn’t put a foot wrong and even with Jofra Archer coming back into the side and being an opener, facing him with the new ball, it seemed like he had lot more ability in spare to handle this kind of an attack. He hasn’t put a foot wrong and that’s been the hallmark of his performances this series.”

Meanwhile, Manjrekar noted that Rahul was able to keep the England bowlers at bay when the home team came up with a short-ball tactic.

“He tackled England’s short-ball ploy easily because this is a pitch which is not going to really help you with that tactic. So, it was Ben Stokes just trying to latch on to anything he could and to set, class batters with no history of weaknesses against the short-ball, he was never going to fall trap to that,” said Manjrekar.

At lunch on Day four, England were 98-4.