Rahul will be disappointed initially but he'll get over it: Ian Botham

Former England captain Ian Botham on Sunday hailed India opener KL Rahul’s magnificent hundred on Day 3 of the fifth and final Test in Chennai. The legendary all-rounder praised Rahul’s maturity and tried to give him moral support. The Indian opener fell agonisingly short of his maiden double hundred.

Rahul batted fluently and compiled a spectacular 199 before scooping a catch to Buttler at cover point. It took some time for the feeling to sink in. Kohli was sitting stunned as Rahul bent down on his knees with a dejection filled head.  Speaking on Rahul’s innings, Botham said that the Karnataka batsman will be very disappointed after getting out one short of a double hundred but he played a brilliant knock nonetheless.

“He (Rahul) played extremely well. I think he curbed his natural instincts. I think he wanted to dominate and be more aggressive but he realised in the team’s interest he curbed all that and he played extremely well. He’ll be disappointed but believe me, if you’d have said to him before he went out and batted you can have a 199 today he would’ve snapped your hand off,” Botham told India Today in an exclusive interview.

“He’ll be disappointed initially but he’ll get over it. It’s just the start of his career, he’s only 24 so he’s got everything in front of him and what a great way to start. He’s set himself a very high standard which is something that he’ll look forward to trying to maintain.”

Botham feels the Indian team wouldn’t have said much to the young batsman after he returned to the pavilion. At stumps on Day 3, India reached 391/4 trailing England (477) by another 86 runs. Karun Nair (71*) and Murali Vijay (17*) are the overnight batsmen for the hosts. On Day 4 everyone will be rotting for Nair to reach his milestone.

“I don’t think anyone gets told of to score 199, believe you me. They would have been disappointed for him but no more than that. They would have loved to see him still batting. It wasn’t to be but he played magnificently. He’s got 199 and it’s a fantastic effort,” Botham added.

Botham was also happy to see a young crop of players making their mark at the Test level said, “You’ve got a good crop of players coming through and I think it’s fantastic. You have Pujara for instance who got left out in the Caribbean but he sorted out his game and he’s improved it. We saw Rahul in this innings, Karun Nair is still there on 71. It’s good to see them coming through and you don’t want to rely too much on two players, Kohli and Pujara, all the time. You want to see these younger guys coming through and they are good to watch.