‘They scare us a lot in nets’: KL Rahul on Indian pace attack after historic win in Centurion

The credit for Team India’s historic Boxing Day Test win by 113 runs at Centurion against South Africa could be given to the bowling unit and little batting. The century knock of KL Rahul, along with help from Mayank Agarwal’s 50 and other inputs from Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant gave India the needed lead.

And to finish off the work, the Indian bowling unit consisting of Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin and Shardul Thakur did a splendid job to bundle out the Proteas for a score of 191 runs in the second innings. 

Batter KL Rahul, who won the player of the match award for being the highest scorer in the game, lauded the pace attack as they managed to share 18 wickets among themselves with the remaining two wickets being picked by spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in the second innings.

Mohammed Shami was the best among all the four pacers as he finished with eight wickets in the match, including a fifer in the first innings. Following next was Jasprit Bumrah who picked five wickets in total.

Talking about the Indian pacers, the Indian Test vice-captain mentioned that this is the best batch of fast bowlers and it is difficult to pick in the nets as well.

“Indian pace attack is difficult to play in nets, especially for me and they scare us a lot in nets – we are lucky to have this bowling attack,” KL Rahul said in the post-match press conference.

About the match, Rahul’s century in the first innings had helped him become only the second Indian opener to achieve this feat in South Africa. 

His ton was the difference between both the teams’ scores in the first innings as the Indian team scored 327 runs of which 123 runs came from Rahul’s bat and South Africa made 197 runs.

The Proteas land is not a place India has conquered yet and especially the Centurion pitch was highly talked about. But the Men in Blue breached the fortress in the first Test of the three-match series and will be looking to continue the same in the other two matches.

The Indian team became only the third team after England and Australia to win a Test match in Centurion since 1995.