‘Biggest culprit was Virat Kohli’s replacement at No.4': Atherton on ‘generous’ KL Rahul throwing away century

The lowest score among the top seven batters of India's first innings was Shubman Gill's 23. Captain Rohit Sharma got just one more. If one calls these two 'failures' in the context of the game - although both of them played crucial parts on Day 1 - one can imagine a fairly big team total and that's exactly what happened in the first Test against England in Hyderabad. India ended Day 2 at 421/7, enjoying a healthy lead of 175 runs over England, who managed 246 in their first innings.

Among the remaining five of India's top seven, 35 was the lowest by Shreyas Iyer. Three of them crossed the 80-run mark. If Ravichandran Ashwin hadn't been run out due to a mix-up with Ravindra Jadeja, then chances are high that he would have only added more runs to the total. Despite every batter apart from Ashwin in the nine that have gotten off to a start in this Test for India, none has managed to notch up a century.

In the context of the game, that may not matter as India have put themselves way ahead of England but in in terms of individual confidence, it may do. This is a batting unit that is still trying to establish itself.

Yashasvi Jaiswal was the first to throw away a century. After the second ball of the day for a boundary over bowler Joe Root's head, he tried to chip the next ball but ended up giving a return catch. Jaiswal was on 80 then.

KL Rahul was the next to miss a deserved century. He showcased a batting masterclass batting at No.4 in the absence of Virat Kohli. But just when it was looking like he would notch up a day hundred, he mistimed a Tom Hartley half-tracker to straight to the deep midwicket fielder when he was just 14 short of his 9th Test century.

Former England captain Michael Atherton called the Indian batters "generous" and said Kohli would never have thrown it away like Jaiswal and Rahul did.

"They were fortunate that India’s top order were in a generous mood but the situation at the close was very bad even so, and could have been even worse. It is hard to imagine that Virat Kohli would have been as obliging as his team-mates were here, and the biggest culprit was his replacement at No 4, the stylish and gifted KL Rahul, who had a hundred for the taking before hammering a long-hop from Tom Hartley into the deep," Atherton wrote in his column for The Times.

Atherton also highlighted the puzzling aspect of lead spinner Jack Leach bowling the least number of overs among all bowlers that England captain Ben Stokes used.

"The most puzzling aspect revolved around the deployment of Jack Leach, England’s most experienced spinner. Until now, Leach has been something of a pet project for Ben Stokes and, in response to the many shows of faith, Leach has responded by growing in stature and confidence.

"Here, though, he was sparingly used, bowling only two overs in the morning and seven in the afternoon, the latter spread over three spells. All told, he bowled 16 overs in the day in six spells, his longest being of four overs.

"This clearly required some explanation, given the medical team were said to be happy with his bowling loads in training in the run-up to this series, with the obvious proviso (mine not theirs) of a lack of match practice, given England’s decision to train in Abu Dhabi rather than play competitive matches in India."