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Senior Team India batter KL Rahul has been named in the Shubman Gill-led Team A squad for the first round of the 2024 Duleep Trophy, which will be played from September 5 to September 8. The red-ball event will be crucial for the right-handed batter, keeping in mind the Test series against Bangladesh, which will begin on September 19, with the first Test at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
While he featured in the ODI series in Sri Lanka earlier this month, the Indian batter hasn't played Test cricket since January. The 32-year-old contributed 86 and 22 in the first Test against England in Hyderabad, a match the hosts lost by 28 runs. The experienced campaigner was subsequently ruled out of the remaining games due to a quadriceps injury he suffered in the first Test.
Rahul has an impressive first-class record in which he has scored 6760 runs at an average of 44.18, with 18 hundreds and 32 fifties. One of his finest knocks came in the final of the 2014 Duleep Trophy while representing South Zone. The right-handed batter scored a wonderful 130 in the fourth innings of the match.
Watch highlights of his knock below
A 22-year-old Rahul struck 14 fours and as many as five sixes in his aggressive knock of 130 in the Duleep Trophy 2014 final, which came off 152 deliveries.
Highlights of Rahul's first-innings hundred
The elegant batter had scored a magnificent 185 off 223 balls in the first innings of the match as well, striking 19 fours and two sixes.
KL Rahul's sublime ton in the 2014 Duleep Trophy final went in vain
South Zone were set a target of 301 by Central Zone in the 2014 Duleep Trophy final played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. Opening the batting, Rahul and Robin Uthappa (30 off 72) added 96 in 24.3 overs. The partnership was broken when Piyush Chawla dismissed Uthappa caught and bowled with a googly.
Rahul was the second wicket to fall in South Zone's chase, trapped lbw by Pankaj Singh as he missed a back-of-a-length delivery that jagged back in from outside off. Despite his dismissal, South Zone were in a commanding position at 203-2. Baba Aparajith also chipped in with a defiant 56 off 138 balls. However, the South Zone innings crumbled around him.
Veteran keeper-batter Dinesh Karthik was bowled by Pankaj for a duck, while Hanuma Vihari (1) chipped a return catch to Jalaj Saxena. In between, Aparajith was stumped off leggie Chawla. The lower-order failed to offer much resistance.
South Zone's batting crumbled stunningly as they went from 203-1 to 291 all out, losing the Duleep Trophy 2014 final by nine runs. For Central Zone, Chawla and Ali Murtaza claimed three scalps each, while Saxena and Panjak chipped in with two wickets apiece.
