The India batter, who top-scored for the Men in Blue at The Gabba with his knock of 84, showered praise on both Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep for helping the side in avoiding the follow-on
India batter KL Rahul revealed that he was ready to pad up to bat again when the Men in Blue lost their ninth wicket for 213 runs on the fourth day of Brisbane Test. Rahul was the top-scorer for India in their first innings with his brilliant knock of 84, however with the threat of follow-on looming, he was preparing himself to take the field once again.
However, fortunately for him, and the entire Indian team, Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep formed a superb partnership of 39 runs which saw the visitors avoid the follow-on. India finished the day on 252/9 with Bumrah batting on 10 and Akash Deep batting on 27.
Thanks to the partnership, India now head into the final day of the Test in a much better situation as the chances of the match ending in a draw look most likely, with 2 more innings to unfold over 3 sessions.
“It’s very good to see when the lower order chips in and scores runs. That’s something we discuss a lot in our meetings and the bowlers work really hard on their batting as well. Really good to see that they can go there and get that little partnership and avoid the follow-on. [It] makes a huge difference knowing that there is a bit of rain around and so much of the match has been lost because of it. We had to find a way to stay in the game and Akash and Bumrah did that. Good way to end the day for us,” Rahul said.
“At that stage (213/9), I was thinking more about going and padding up and trying to go back to bad. I’m not sure if they would have enforced the follow-on, so I was thinking about what I need to do about my batting. But it’s always nice to see bowlers go out there and get some runs, they put in a lot of efforts in the nets and when it mattered today, I’m happy that they could really play some shots and very exciting shots,” Rahul added.
“It was a very exciting contest in the last half an hour… not just the runs that they got but also the heart that they showed to keep away the bouncers, get behind the ball, defend well, play some nice shots. It will give them and the team a lot of confidence,” Rahul further said.
