Rahul gears up for England Tests with ton for India A

KL Rahul seamlessly transitioned into red-ball mode with a fluent century on the opening day of the second unofficial Test between India A and England Lions. Despite not being named in the squad initially, Rahul made himself available for this clash after his IPL commitments had gotten over and managed to make a statement on the opening day.

For the Lions, Chris Woakes was the pick of the bowlers as he ended the day with three wickets. Woakes, who was chosen to play this fixture to prepare himself for the Test series, set the tone early in the day by getting rid of Yashasvi Jaiswal for 17 before breaching Abhimanyu Easwaran's defence. Karun Nair, fresh from a double ton, then joined forces with Rahul as the duo added 86 runs to lift India A.

While he couldn't repeat his heroics from the first game, Nair still made an impressive 40 to further stake his claim for a spot in the Indian middle-order for that opening Test at Headingley. After his departure, Dhruv Jurel and Rahul kept the home side at bay for a significant period with a century stand to put India A firmly on top. Having already made 94 and 53* in the first game, Jurel helped himself to another fifty with Rahul bringing up three figures at the other end.

Both set batters were then dismissed in the space of nine deliveries by George Hill to bring the Lions back into the contest. Nitsh Reddy then spent a decent amount of time in the middle alongside Shardul Thakur but the duo couldn't bat until stumps on a day that was constantly disrupted by rain at different intervals.

Brief scores: India A 319/7 (KL Rahul 116, Dhruv Jurel 52; Chris Woakes 3-50) vs England Lions