KL Rahul’s form is a massive takeaway for India: Sanjay Manjrekar

Sanjay Manjrekar highlighted KL Rahul’s consistent form as India’s biggest gain from the series, while also praising Jadeja and Bumrah’s grit in a closely fought Test defeat at Lord’s

New Delhi: Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar believes that opener KL Rahul’s form in the ongoing Test series against England is the biggest takeaway for the visitors.

Rahul has so far amassed 375 runs across six innings on the tour including two centuries and a half-century.

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“The biggest satisfaction I’ve had – as an analyst and a former cricketer – has come from watching KL Rahul. He has always had the game. Yes, there were grey areas in his technique, but he worked on those and resolved them. What was missing was consistency. On one of our shows, we even jokingly gave him the title of ‘Mr. Consistent KL Rahul’ – but it’s taken him a long time to truly earn that tag.

“He has now played over 50 Test matches for India, and what I’m seeing now is close to perfection – there are no visible weaknesses. For the first time in an overseas series, he has scored more than 200 runs. That, for me, is a massive takeaway for India,” Manjrekar said on JioHotstar.

After India’s narrow 22-run loss at Lord’s on Monday, Manjrekar reflected on the ninth-wicket partnership between Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah.

“Ravindra Jadeja was batting well and defending resolutely, but it never looked like he was taking the kind of risks needed to help India win. He was playing a waiting game and hoping against hope. The real star in that partnership, though, was Jasprit Bumrah. He stayed out there for one hour and 40 minutes against high-quality fast bowling, facing bouncers, and it was remarkable to see how his net sessions with the bat finally paid off. The mental toughness we see in his bowling came through in his batting too, and that was truly special,” he said.

“It’s heartening to see how much Jadeja trusts his defence these days. He plays long innings now, patient and with time on his side. The 70 runs he scored in the first innings were not a quick-fire 70 – he batted for four hours. And on this pitch, scoring 50 felt like batting for 50 hours. But if you look at that moment when Jadeja brought up his half-century, the visuals from the Lord’s balcony did not look too positive. The energy from the dressing room said it all, it felt like the team knew that winning would be very difficult. Jadeja was trying, no doubt, but given the pitch, the conditions, and India’s scoring rate, the chase looked beyond reach,” Manjrekar added on Jadeja’s gritty knock.

Reflecting on Bumrah’s adaptability and impact across both innings, Manjrekar praised the pacer’s greatness that has become his legacy.

“In the first innings, Bumrah showed just how great a bowler he is. This was the kind of pitch where he could not really display his full range, so he bowled patiently and waited for opportunities. And when the moment came – in the latter half of the innings – he was ready. He picked up five wickets in the first innings on a surface that did not offer much assistance. Then, when Washington Sundar took four key wickets and India needed to wrap up England quickly, Bumrah stepped in again and delivered. That yorker to dismiss Brydon Carse is still fresh in the mind. Showing his greatness in different ways – that has become Bumrah’s legacy,” the former batter said.