The Indian cricket team has been enjoying its tour to Sri Lanka. After crushing the hosts in Galle and Colombo, Virat Kohli's men continued their dominant way on Day 1 morning of the third and final Test in Pallekele.
After winning the toss for the third consecutive time, India opted to bat and openers KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan proved their captain made the right call with an unbeaten 134-run stand in the morning session.
In doing so, Rahul equalled the world record for most number of consecutive fifties in Tests. With an unbeaten 67 in the morning session, the Karnataka batsman brought up his seventh straight (ninth overall) Test half-century.
He has joined an elite list, consisting ED Weeks, Andy Flower, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Kumar Sangakkara and Chris Rogers, who have also scored seven consecutive fifties in the longest format of the game.
Rahul also surpassed Rahul Dravid's record of six consecutive fifties, a feat the batting great achieved during the 1997/98 season. Former India opener Gundappa Viswanath had also hit six straight half-centuries. Notably, all of them came in overseas conditions.
Rahul aced the Australia test
Rahul's consistent run began when he scored a match-winning 90 against India in Bengaluru earlier this year. He then followed it up with a second innings half-century.
He continued his fine form against Steve Smith's men, scoring 67 in Ranchi and back-to-back half-centuries in the series decider, which India won in Dharamsala.
Rahul was forced to miss Galle Test due to illness, but he returned to the side in Colombo and made an immediate impact with a half-century, before he was run-out by Cheteshwar Pujara.
Century drought
The 25-year-old batsman though has not scored a ton ever since he was dismissed on 199 during the Chennai Test last year against a visiting England team.
However, Rahul has looked fluent from the word go in Pallekele and is looking set to break his century drought.
Given his fine form, Rahul is likely to be in the India squad for the upcoming limited-overs series against Sri Lanka, which has five ODIs and a one-off T20I match.
The Indian selectors are expected to meet and announce the squad during the course of the ongoing Test. Gujarat Lions and Twenty20 specialist Suresh Raina is likely to make a return to the ODI squad after a two-year hiatus.
