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India wicketkeeper batter KL Rahul on Wednesday reflected on his preparation as an opener ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) against Australia and said that he just had to back himself and practice more to get ready for the role.
In the Perth Test, KL Rahul played a magnificent innings of 77 runs from 176 balls which was laced with five boundaries in his innings. Rahul along with Yashasvi Jaiswal built a record-breaking partnership of 201 runs for the first wicket in the opening Test of the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 at the Optus Stadium in Perth. Speaking at the pre-match press conference, KL Rahul revealed that he was informed by team management that he would be opening at some point in the BGT series, so he got enough time to prepare. The 32-year-old added that he batted a lot in the top of the order for which he knew what he had to do before the series. "I missed out in the New Zealand series, I didn't play the last two games. So I was told to be ready, there might be a chance for me to open the batting. So I got enough time to prepare and opening is something that I've done for a long time in my career. So I just had to go back and practice it a little bit more and like I said, I batted a lot in the top of the order, so I know how I need to get my runs and what processes I need to follow. And I got enough practice time, I came here early, I played an India A game which helped me to get some time in the middle, we played a few practice games as well, so I got a lot of time in the middle, so it was good, it helped me in my preparation," KL Rahul said. India are currently 1-0 up in the BGT series following their record-shattering 295-run victory in Perth. The second Test will be played in a day-night format in Adelaide, beginning from Friday. Australia squad (for second Test): Pat Cummins (C), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (WK), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster. India squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal. (ANI)
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