KL Rahul has been the most consistent performer for India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT 2024-25) series against Australia. KL Rahul needs a century in the fourth Test at the MCG to become the first Indian batsman to achieve the historic feat, something Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar have not done.
Apart from Rahul, the other top-order batsmen struggled for runs. Notably, the Karnataka batsman was unsure of his place in the playing XI but got his chance due to Rohit Sharma's absence in the first Test. Since then, he has made it impossible for the team management to exclude him from first place.
Rahul is on the cusp of history to become the first Indian player to achieve this feat
India and Australia will face off in the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, starting on Thursday, December 26. The ongoing Test series is currently locked at 1-1. KL Rahul has the chance to pull off a rare feat by scoring a hat-trick of centuries in the Boxing Day Tests.
Sachin Tendulkar and Ajinkya Rahane are the only Indians to have multiple centuries in Boxing Day Tests. Rahul scored centuries in the 2021 and 2023 Boxing Day Tests against South Africa. His only previous outing was in a Boxing Day Test in Australia in 2014, where he struggled to scores of 3 and 1.
The Indian batsman's centuries in the Boxing Day Tests
| player | Centuries in the Boxing Day Test | Discount and year |
|---|---|---|
| Sachin Tendulkar | 2 | New Zealand (1998), Australia (1999) |
| Ajinkya Rahane | 2 | Australia (2014, 2020) |
| Kuala Lumpur Rahul | 2 | South Africa (2021, 2023) |
| Dilip Vengsarkar | 1 | West Indies (1987) |
| Kapil Dev | 1 | South Africa (1992) |
| Muhammad Azharuddin | 1 | New Zealand (1998) |
| Virat Kohli | 1 | Australia (2014) |
| Cheteshwar Pujara | 1 | Australia (2018) |
KL Rahul has been India's top run-scorer in the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy
KL Rahul has been India's top run-scorer in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, amassing 235 runs in six innings across three matches at an average of 47. His crucial 84-run knock in the third Test helped India salvage a draw. Rahul currently ranks second overall in most rounds in the series, behind Travis Head.
In 2024, Rahul played in eight Tests, scoring 469 runs at an average of 39.08, including four fifties. In the current edition of the ICC World Test Championship (2023-25), the right-handed batsman has scored 574 runs in nine matches at an average of 41.00, including a century and four half-centuries.
The upcoming MCG Test will mark the 10th anniversary of Rahul's international debut, which was played at the same venue against Australia in 2014. His only century for Australia came in the second Test of his career, in Sydney in 2015. He will be hoping to score a century after missing out twice in Series.
