“Rahul is turning out to be man of crisis for us” - India batting coach Vikram Rathour

Team India batting coach Vikram Rathour hailed KL Rahul as the side’s crisis man after he held the visitors’ innings together with 70* off 105 balls on Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test against South Africa in Centurion on Tuesday, December 26.

India ended the opening day of the Test match at 208/8 in 59 overs. Following a delayed start due to weather conditions, the Proteas won the toss and asked India to bat first. The visitors crumbled to 24/3 under challenging batting conditions. Rahul, however, held the innings together with an unbeaten half-century.

Speaking at a press conference after the end of the first day’s play, Rathour hailed the Indian batter and said:

"Rahul is turning out to be man of crisis for us. Every time, there are tough situations, he is the guy who handles it well for us. Nothing special, he was clear with his game plans, defended the right balls, attacked the right ones.”

After India lost three early wickets, Virat Kohli (38 off 64) and Shreyas Iyer (31 off 50) added 68 runs for the fourth wicket. Both batters were, however, dismissed by Kagiso Rabada (5/44).

Rahul then anchored the innings, hitting 10 fours and two sixes in his impressive knock. He featured in a handy 43-run stand with Shardul Thakur (24 off 33) for the seventh wicket.

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“I feel they used it as a tactic” - Rathour on South Africa pacers bowling short balls down leg

South African pacers bowled quite a few short balls while having a leg slip in place. They did something similar during India’s previous visit in 2021-22 and tasted decent success. Rathour admitted that the Proteas used it as a tactic again.

"Not very often but in last series also there were 5-6 dismissals down leg side. At lunch, they bowled 65 balls down leg, if they bowled outside off, whether they would have got same success, that's debatable. Because of tennis ball like spongy bounce, it was a difficult delivery to control as you saw how (Shubman) Gill got out. I feel they used it as a tactic,” he said.

While Indian captain Rohit Sharma (5) fell to the hook shot, Yashasvi Jaiswal (17) nicked a delivery in the channel before Shubman Gill (2) gloved a rising delivery from Nandre Burger down the leg side.