India opener KL Rahul has put his weight behind Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara who are going through a rough patch for quite sometime now.
Rahul who scored a brilliant century in the first innings of the on-going second Test at Lord’s against England has said that both Rahane and Pujara are world-class and experienced players and have helped India come out of a tricky situation on a number of occasions in the past.
“Pujara and Ajinkya have done the job for India many times when we were in trouble. They are world-class and experienced players so they know how to come out of a couple of innings where they haven’t scored runs,” Rahul said at the press conference after the second day’s play.
The right-handed batsman further put the onus on the conditions and said that it’s tough to get runs in England.
“You have also to realise they are playing in tough conditions. In English conditions batting is always going to be challenging, you are going to get good balls. You can’t go out there and score runs in every innings, but if you get a start you make it count,” he added.
While Rahane was dismissed for 1 in the first innings of this on-going Test, Pujara just managed to get 9 before he was sent back to the pavilion.
However, India rode on some fine batting from Rahul, Rohit and Jadeja to put 364 before getting bowled out in the first innings.
England on the other hand had a cautious start to the proceedings but eventually lost wickets to end Day 2 at 119/3 with captain Joe Root at the crease at 48 and Bairstow at 6, trailing India by 245 runs.