"Selfish knock": KL Rahul destroyed for sacrificing Rishabh Pant to chase personal milestone at Lord’s

The 33-year-old India National Cricket Team senior opening batsman KL Rahul displayed a tremendous batting performance in the third Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.

KL Rahul batted with sheer elegance throughout his innings and registered a brilliant hundred at Lord's in London on Saturday, July 12.

Also Read: Watch: 'Selfish' KL Rahul gets Rishabh Pant run out as Ben Stokes pulls off brilliant direct-hit at Lord’s

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KL Rahul shines bright at Lord's

The right-handed batsman is the leader of the Indian batting unit in terms of seniority, and he took responsibility to stabilize the innings after the visitors lost early wickets in the third Test match.

In response to England's 387, India were off to a poor start as they lost in-form Yashasvi Jaiswal on the third ball of the 2nd over. Rahul didn't let the early wicket affect him, and he built a solid 61-run partnership with Karun Nair to bring momentum back towards India.

Then, he was joined by the skipper Shubman Gill in the middle, and the duo batted very well, but were only able to stitch together 33 runs before the India captain fell to Chris Woakes.

Despite losing his skipper for a low score, KL Rahul kept batting brilliantly and built the best partnership of the match with star wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant.

Rahul and Pant added 141 runs in 198 balls, before the latter got run out. KL Rahul was at fault for the run-out because he was eager to get on the strike to complete his ton before lunch and pressured Pant to go for a quick single, which he wasn't able to complete.

Rahul falls for 100

Just after Lunch, the right-handed opening batsman completed his century off 176 balls in the 67th over, which was bowled by Jofra Archer.

However, in the next over, he was dismissed by spinner Shoaib Bashir. Bashir bowled a flighted 82kmph off-break delivery to Rahul outside off-stump, and the batter edged it into the hands of Harry Brook.

Meanwhile, Rahul's Test ton at Lord's was his 10th in the longest format of the game, fourth in England, and second at Lord's. It was the first time he scored two hundreds in a bilateral series and became the first Asian opener to hit two Test centuries at Lord's. Also, he became the second Indian after Dilip Vengsarkar to hit multiple tons at Lord's.

Visiting openers with the most Test 100s at Lord's:

2 - KL Rahul (5 innings)*

2 - Bill Brown (4)

2 - Graeme Smith (5)

2 - Gordon Greenidge (7)

Here's How Fans Reacted To KL Rahul's Ton:

Played KL! Important to bat big once you get in. 👏

Plenty to prove, to not derail after the first Test heroics.

Defence.
Soft hands.
Controlled pulls.

Yes, there are things to take care of. So job is far from done.

Bat all day!#ENGvsIND

— Nikhil 🏏 (@CricCrazyNIKS) July 12, 2025

Well played @klrahul. Second century at Lord’s. This is easily one of your better centuries. Of the 10 centuries this man has 9 overseas 🙌👏🏻 #ENGvIND

— Dodda Ganesh | ದೊಡ್ಡ ಗಣೇಶ್ (@doddaganesha) July 12, 2025

Finally this very likeable & class cricketer comes of age. Carries his form from one Test to the other. 2 hundreds now in 3 Tests! Pity about the immediate dismissal after. But overall so far this series🙇🙇🙇 KL! #KLRahul

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) July 12, 2025

Rishabh Pant's runout needed to be compensated by a big innings from Rahul. But Rahul has disappointed.#INDvsENG

— Wordpecker (@Writes_Adarsh) July 12, 2025

Pant got run out looking for Rahul’s century and now Rahul gets out and that too to Bashir. I always feared this, we always suffer a collapse after a huge partnership.

— Prantik (@Pran__07) July 12, 2025

Stupid from Pant. Throwing wicket for Rahul's 100 was not necessary. Game changing wicket.

— IRANNA MAHOOR (@ImIranna) July 12, 2025

Pant's wicket was given away for jst 2 runs. Very sad to see KL Rahul getting out immediately after scoring 100 #INDvsENG

— Athiswamy (@athitheboss) July 12, 2025

India may have just paid the price for chasing a personal milestone—two wickets down at a critical juncture…#ENGvsIND

— Sandipan Banerjee (@im_sandipan) July 12, 2025

It's like he was made to bat in England. Well played @klrahul 👏🏻 Wish he'd got a lot more. #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/fOmqFdKlf3

— Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) July 12, 2025

Milestone ✅
Selfish Knock ✅
Run out a fellow player ✅

Now by getting out I will give advantage to England.

After getting Rishabh Pant out, KL Rahul himself got out. pic.twitter.com/uuSNgoF1a3

— Satya Prakash (@_SatyaPrakash08) July 12, 2025