Opener KL Rahul reinforced his 84 in the First test with a superb 100 to break India's seven-year-old centuries drought at Lords on Thursday. Rahul became the first Indian after Ajinkya Rahane and the 10th overall to earn a place on the cricket househonors tables.Rahul brought the second hundred of him against England in the 212-ball. Rahul had hit nine boundaries and one six when he reached the three digits.Rahul went head-to-head with England's pace attack and came out with a good hundred, helping his team dominate the game in the final session of opening day.Notably, Rahul also became the second batsman to reach one hundred in the 2021-23 cycle of the ICC World Test Championship. This is KL Rahul's sixth test hundred and his second against England.Rahul leaves all fourth stump delivery and didn't care much about the incoming deliveries and knew where his off stump was and covered the swing. As soon as Rohit left the scene, Rahul upped the ante and ended the opening day with a brilliant sixth hundred.Placed in the position of the Lords, the Indian inaugural pair of KL Rahul (55 hits from 143balls)and Rohitnegated cloudy conditions on a good batting surface during the away team's inaugural track in the first century since the 2007 Tour.After negotiating two deliveries that went away. Rohit was surprised with one that came in, much to Anderson's delight, who overcame a close quartet to retain his place on the team. Anderson struck again in the 50th over when Cheteshwar Pujara fell to nine after edging outswinger to Jonny Bairstow on the third slip to leave the visitors at 150-2. But Rahul raised the scoring rate after Rohit's departure and ignited his half century.England, without seamer Stuart Broad due to a torn right calf, called up Haseeb Hamid, Moen Ali, Mark Wood, Zach Crowley and Dan Lawrence.Also Read- Neeraj Chopra rises to second spot in world rankings after Olympic gold
In form captain Joe Root edged out players like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Alastair Cook to become the batsman with the most hundreds in the India vs England Test after scoring the eighth century in the Test against Virat Kohli side during the second match of the series in Leeds on Thursday. Root tops the list of most number of hundred in India vs England Tests with 8 centuries in 41 innings, while Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Alastair Cook are the second seven-ton sets in bilateral series between the two countries. Root also became the first player to score hundreds in 3 consecutive tests twice in the same year. Root hit hundred in each of the last two tests in Nottingham and London. Root also became the player to score more than fifty plus as captain during England vs India in England. Root smashed six fifties while playing against India in England, he equalled MS Dhoni's record.Also Read- India vs England: Wounds of 2014 hurt Virat Kohli again Root scored 139-run in 189-ball with Malan (70 of 128) before the southpaw picked up edge while trying to flick Mohamed Siraj ball. Indian pacers, who wrote a memorable script for the Lords victory, bowled too many boundary balls and the English duo were quick to pick them. The pitch appears to have loosened considerably for the batsman after India collapsed to 78 on the first day. Indian bowlers have not been able to send Root back to the pavilion easily in the series and the skipper scored runs whenever he want to. He seems to be in form and reached his 51 fifty of 57 balls with a impressive back foot punch through the covers.Also Read- IPL 2021: Pandya brothers Kunal and Hardik join Mumbai Indian camp in Abu Dhabi
