We were more ready this time and we were ready for a fight: KL Rahul after India’s win in 2nd test vs SA

KL Rahul who scored a gritty century in the first Test against South Africa at the Centurion only for India to still lose, said that the team were far more prepared when the second Test at Cape Town rolled around.

“There was a little bit of change of the planning and attitude only. I mean we can’t say that we weren’t ready during the last test match. We were ready but there are situations where the opposition really blasts you out of the test match or we are not used to it,” he said in an interaction with Star Sports.

In the first Test, India were crushed by a buoyant Protea side by an innings and 32 runs which led to a lot of chatter about the team’s form.

Speaking on that, Rahul said, “Since last 4-5 years, we’ve been a team that’s really competed and we have won series outside of India, so we weren’t ready for it and it was a huge hit for us, but it speaks volumes of how much we enjoy playing test cricket and how much we value playing for our country and how much test victories outside of India mean to us. So, it was just a mental shift during the turnaround time of one day.”

India would ultimately fight back and level the 2-match series at 1-1 in the second Test which ended in one and a half days with 33 wickets falling. Rahul himself couldn’t replicate his form of the first Test falling for 8 during the first innings but that did not deter the side who went on to complete a historic Test win by 7 wickets.

“We were more ready this time and we were ready for a fight. We wanted to get this win and just do our job really well. I think we weren’t really 100% during our last match in terms of batting or bowling. We were prepared, but that extra edge or extra fire was missing, credit to South Africa as well, that they didn’t allow us to reach to that confidence. They bowled us out very cheaply in both the innings. So, we were really happy that we could bounce off so well,“ he said.

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