Sunil Gavaskar lavished praise on KL Rahul after he scored his eighth Test hundred on day two of the Boxing Day Test between South Africa and India in Centurion today (December 27).

Rahul, playing his first Test as a designated wicketkeeper, scored a spectacular hundred on day two of the second SA vs IND Test at Super Sport Park in Centurion. Coming in to bat at No.6, Rahul arrested a middle order collapse on day one, partnering with the lower order to rescue India.

Rahul ended day one at 70 and was at his attacking best on the second morning, taking just 28 balls to reach three-figures. He dispatched a length ball by Gerald Coetzee over mid-wicket for six to reach his century.

Sunil Gavaskar, who was on air in the Hindi commentary box when Rahul completed his hundred, showered high praise on the wicketkeeper-batter. Gavaskar hailed his hundred as one of the very best individual centuries scored by an Indian batter in Test cricket.

“I have been watching cricket since 50 years, I can surely say this hundred by Rahul is in the top ten in the Indian history of Tests,” Gavaskar said. “Because this is a different kind of pitch.

“Here, a batter would never have the confidence that he is set. The ball can do anything anytime. Playing such a knock despite that, especially today… he was unbeaten on 70 yesterday but only had Siraj and Prasidh Krishna for company today.

“When Siraj got out, [Rahul] was on 95. The shot with which he reached his hundred, no praise would be enough for it. It was a length ball and he played a shot that you would normally see in T20s. Amazing.”

This was Rahul’s second successive hundred in Centurion, having also scored one in the previous tour in 2021-22. This led Gavaskar to compare his feat to Dilip Vengsarkar’s dominance at Lord’s.

Vengsarkar is the sixth-highest run-scorer at Lord’s in Tests among visiting batters and is the only non-English batter to have scored three hundreds at the venue. Similarly, Rahul became the first visiting batter to score a second Test hundred in Centurion.

“Dilip Vengsarkar had scored three consecutive hundreds at Lord’s and was out on 52 the fourth time. That is why he was called the ‘Lord of Lord’s.’ Similarly, we can say that KL Rahul is the ‘Centurion of Centurion,'” said Gavaskar.

India eventually ended their innings at 245 and took the wicket of Aiden Markram before heading into lunch on day two.

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