Rahul, India's watchful protector at the top
Except those two runs he scored in the first innings of the second Test at Edgbaston, Rahul has crossed double-figures mark in each of the remaining seven innings. Besides, he stitched together crucial partnerships with other batters at various points of time to keep India in the hunt during the series. Be it his 195-run partnership with Pant for the fourth wicket in the second innings of the first match or the 141 runs he added with the same batter in the first essay of the Lord's Test. The latest was the rescue act he and Gill carried out when India were two down without even opening their account in the second innings in Manchester. The duo added 188 runs for the third wicket to give India hope of putting up a fight in challenging conditions.
There are also a couple of knocks where he couldn't convert the starts but in those innings as well he built partnerships with fellow batters to set the platform for upcoming batters. One such innings came in Birmingham where he added 55 runs with Yashasvi Jaiswal. The other came in the recently-concluded match where he and Jaiswal once again scored 94 runs together to give India a solid start in the first innings.
In most of these innings, the Karnataka batter has held one end and played patiently blunting England's pace attack. With the Dukes balls understandably getting soft after the first 30-35 overs in the hot and humid weather, his patient innings have only helped India's cause. The 33-year-old right-hand batter has faced 998 balls so far with only his captain Gill ahead of him playing 1106 balls. Interestingly, he is only the batter among the top five run scorers not to have hit a six. But he has smashed 67 fours, again only behind Gill, who has scored 79. His affinity with fours highlights his style of play, which looks more inclined towards playing grounded shots rather than going for expansive drives.
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