KL Rahul clocked these stunning numbers in 2025 Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy
What's the story
Though KL Rahul made his bat talk in the ongoing five-Test series against England, he suffered twin failures in the final game at The Oval. The right-handed opener hence finished with 532 runs in 10 innings. Notably, he fell short of breaking Sunil Gavaskar's long-standing record of most runs by an Asian opener in a bilateral Test series in England by just 11 runs. Here we decode Rahul's numbers in the 2025 Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
Tally
Rahul slammed two tons in the series
As mentioned, Rahul has ended the Test series with 532 runs from 5 matches (10 innings) at 53.20. In addition to two tons, he slammed 2 fifties. His scores in this series read: 42 and 137 at Headingley 2 and 55 at Edgbaston 100 and 39 at Lord's 46 and 90 at Old Trafford 14 and 17 at The Oval This tally means Rahul is ninth in terms of visiting openers with most runs in a Test series in England.
Record details
Rahul misses out on breaking this record
After scoring 14 runs on Day 1 of the aforementioned Oval Test, Rahul perished for just 7 on Day 2. He hence missed out on Gavaskar's record. As per ESPNcricinfo, the latter had scored 542 runs as an opener for India in four matches against England back in 1979. No other Asian opener has even scored 420 runs in a bilateral Test series in England.
Information
Rahul joins Smith and Vaghan
It must be noted that South Africa's Graeme Smith (714 vs England, 2003) and England's Michael Vaughan (615 vs India, 2002) are the only other designated openers to tally 500-plus runs in a Test series in England in the 21st century.
Stats
Over 1,000 Test runs in England
The series also saw Rahul complete 1,000 Test runs in England. He has now taken his tally to 1,146 runs across 14 games at an average of 40.92. 1,129 of these runs have come as a designated opener. Smith (1,355) is the only other visiting opener with 1,000-plus Test runs in England since 2000. Meanwhile, Gavaskar (1,152) is the only Asian with 530-plus runs in the UK as a designated opener.
Information
Second Indian opener with this feat
As per Cricbuzz, Rahul became the second Indian opener with 1000-plus runs in an away country. He has joined Gavaskar, who has done so in three nations - 1,404 runs in West Indies, 1,152 runs in England, and 1,001 runs in Pakistan.
DYK
Most tons by an Indian opener in England
Each of Rahul's four Test tons in England has come while opening the innings. WI's Gordon Greenidge (WI), SA's Smith (5), and Australia's Mark Taylor (5) are the only visiting openers with more hundreds in the nation. No other Indian opener has more than two tons in this regard. Overall, Rahul has seven 50+ scores on England soil in Test cricket. Among Asian openers, only Gavaskar (10) is ahead of him on this list.
Lord's
Rahul attains these feats at Lord's
Earlier in the series, Rahul slammed his second Test hundred at Lord's. He became the second Indian after Dilip Vengsarkar to hammer multiple hundreds at the venue. The latter hammered three tons here. Rahul also became the fourth visiting opener to hammer multiple Test hundreds at Lord's. He has joined Australia's Bill Brown, West Indies's Greenidge, and South Africa's Smith, who also hammered two hundreds apiece at the Mecca of Cricket.