India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour showered praise on middle-order batter KL Rahul and said that he is a man of crisis.
Speaking at the post-day press conference, Rathour said that every time India suffered Rahul prevailed to take India in a better place. He added that Rahul was very clear with his plans against South Africa and did what he wanted to do.
“He is a man of crisis. Every time there is a tough situation most of the times he is there. He is very clear with his game plans what he wanted to do,” Rathour said. Talking about the conditions in Centurion, he further added that it was a “challenging surface to bat” especially due to the rainy weather.
The batting coach added that they would love to have more runs on the scoreboard after the end of the first day. However, he added that the visitors did “reasonably well” against the Proteas on day one. “It was always going to be a challenging surface to bat on because the weather was there, the wicket was undercover for a day or more than that. We would love to have a couple of more wickets on our hands at the end of the day but we did reasonably well, we have runs on board,” he added.
Talking about Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer, he praised the two batters and said that they played a crucial recovery partnership after India lost three wickets. “The condition was tough. After losing three wickets, it was a good recovery partnership from Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer, they both have played well,” he added.
Recapping day one of the Test match, rain played spoilsport as the majority of the third session was ruled out on Day 1 of the first Test between India and South Africa on Tuesday at the SuperSport Park.
At the end of Day 1, India posted a total of 208/8 in 59 overs with KL Rahul and Mohammed Siraj unbeaten with respective scores of 70(105)* and 0(10)*.
KL Rahul fought valiantly throughout the time that he spent on the field. While the rest of the batters failed to overcome Kagiso Rabada, he fought with vigour to take India’s score past the 200-run mark. Siraj also showed patience during the 10 balls that he faced he faced.
The only casualty in the final session was Jasprit Bumrah, who lost his patience and ended up losing his wicket to Marco Jansen after playing 19 balls.
