Indian opener KL Rahul ended a long home-soil century drought, scoring his 11th Test hundred in India’s opening match against the West Indies at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Friday. He reached 100 off 197 balls, hitting 12 stylish fours.
It had taken him 26 innings between home hundreds—the fourth-longest gap for an Indian batter. His last century at home came against England in Chennai in December 2016, when he scored 199. In terms of days, the gap stretched 3,211 days, making it the longest interval between two home Test centuries for an Indian. Only Ravichandran Ashwin’s 36-innings wait between home hundreds ranks longer.
This year has been arguably Rahul’s best in Test cricket. Across seven matches and 13 innings, he has amassed 649 runs at an average of 54.08, including three centuries and two fifties, with a top score of 137. His standout series was the England tour, where he scored 532 runs in five Tests at an average of 53.20, finishing as India’s third-highest run-scorer with two centuries and two fifties.
With this century against the West Indies, Rahul also joined an elite list of Indian batters to score 10 or more centuries as a Test opener, surpassing Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma, both with nine. He now joins Sunil Gavaskar (33 centuries), Virender Sehwag (22), and Murali Vijay (12) in this exclusive club.
Rahul couldn’t convert this innings into a bigger score, falling to Jomel Warrican at the start of the second session when a catch at short extra-cover by Justin Greaves ended his knock. Nonetheless, the century marked a milestone in Rahul’s career and reaffirmed his place as one of India’s most reliable openers.
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