'That's why I came here early' - KL Rahul on prepping for England series with India A game

Opening batter KL Rahul looked glorious in the second innings of the ongoing first Test between England and India at the Headingley, Leeds. With a negligible 6-run lead after both teams batted once each, India needed little more than a solid performance in the second innings to put a huge target for the Englishmen and leave plenty to work with for the bowlers later.

Rahul delivered exactly what was needed of him, especially after Yashasvi Jaiswal departed pretty early. The Karnataka batter made a decent partnership with Sai Sudharsan that stabilized the ship during the last session on Day 3. After Sudharsan and even skipper Shubman Gill departed in quick succession, Rahul took the onus upon himself to make sure there were no hiccups in the game as he partnered alongside No. 5 batter Rishabh Pant.

The mammoth 195-run stand Rahul built with Rishabh Pant was the reason India were able to put up a target of 371 for The Three Lions. The ace batter top scored for India for his calm and well-composed 137 off 247 deliveries. Rahul, who played a couple of tour games before starting the five-match series with the senior team, said how important it was for him to come early to the United Kingdom and get used to cold and windy conditions as a process of his preparation ahead of the one-and-a-half-month long tour.

"It's not easy switching between formats, and especially in a short period of time. But yeah, that's why I came here early. There's an opportunity for me to come and play in the India A game against the England Lions. And I felt like that's better prep for me to be in the middle and if I get some time to spend in the middle, it'll be really good just to bat against the Duke's ball, just get used to the cold conditions and windy conditions and just spend some time leaving a few balls. 

"[It was just about] getting that tempo again of playing Test cricket. So that really helped me come here early and adjust to the conditions and just get that tempo right and just feel comfortable wearing the whites again and getting used to seeing the red ball coming at me. So that really helped in terms of prep," Rahul told Sony Sports in a conversation alongside Deep Das Gupta.

KL Rahul analyses his Test career after sublime Leeds ton

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KL Rahul analyses his Test career after sublime Leeds ton

Coming here early really helped me: Rahul

Before this series, the Mangalore-born has been to England twice and scored hundreds on both the previous tours. But since each tour offers a different challenge and the conditions do tend to change more often than not in the English summer, the senior batter thought it was important for him to come ahead of the team's supposed arrival, the results of which are evident.

"I've been here before. I've played a few Test series here. So I knew what to expect. But again, every series is different this time. The bowlers are different. The conditions are different. So yeah, it was just about switching on and trying to do the simple things right and coming here early really helped," he added.