Afghanistan had a golden chance of seeing the back of KL Rahul pretty early on Day 1 of the one-off Test against India, but the visitors were left to rue their costly mistake. Despite a clear sound, the Afghanistan captain, Hashmatullah Shahidi, chose not to review the call and later regretted his decision, as replays showed a clear connection between the bat and ball. Rahmanullah Gurbaz tried his best to convince the team to take the review, but it wasn’t to be, as the Afghan captain went with the wicketkeeper Afsar Zazai, who didn’t hear anything.
The incident happened on the opening delivery of the 11th over. Ziaur Rahman Sharifi bowled a short of a length delivery, and Rahul looked to go for a big booming cut. There was a clear noise, and the Afghanistan camp appealed, only to be turned down by the on-field umpire. Afghanistan had the chance to take the review, but the side decided against it.
When the Afghanistan camp was deliberating whether to go for the review, Rahul acted as if there was no connection between the bat and the ball, and his body language played a big role in the visitors not taking the review.
Soon after, the replay was shown on the big screen and the Afghan captain was made to rue his decision as the UltraEdge showed a clear spike when the bat was next to the ball.
When the entire sequence of events unfolded, former England spinner Graeme Swann, who was on commentary, lauded Rahul for coming up with an act that eventually managed to foil the visiting camp.
“KL Rahul has played an absolute blinder here, because the captain and the keeper looked to him, and he shook his head. And they believed him. He should be put up for an Oscar for his acting there, KL Rahul. My hat’s off to you, sir. Here comes the Oscar,” said Swann on air.
“True batters never believe they are out despite the evidence,” he added.
Jaiswal fails
Soon after this Rahul episode, Yashasvi Jaiswal lost his wicket for 24 off 32 balls after he was strangled down the legside off the bowling of Saleem Safi. Rahul and Jaiswal put on 41 runs for the opening wicket.
Earlier, India captain Shubman Gill won the toss and opted to bat. Manav Suthar played ahead of Harsh Dubey to make his Test debut.
At the time of the toss, Gill said, “The preparation’s been pretty good. Honestly, the only thing that’s been a little tricky is the switch from sleeping late at night to waking up at the time that we were sleeping. But got a good couple of days of sleep, and I think everyone’s pretty fresh and ready to go.”
“Nine Test matches after this, we’ll be playing two against Sri Lanka and five at home. So we’ve got quite a few Test matches here at home and similar conditions, I would say, in Sri Lanka and in India. So, just trying to get our combinations right and a lot of things as a batting group that we need to prove, especially here. So those are things that we are looking to,” he added.