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'I needed to make that mental switch' – Rahul continues batting dominance for India

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Clock Icon4 daysCricket

KL Rahul revealed that a "mental switch" when batting in slower conditions was the key to his recent upturn in form.

The opening batter scored 100 runs for India, who lead West Indies by 268 runs after day two of their first Test, with Dhruv Jurel and Ravindra Jadeja also scoring centuries.

Rahul now has 10 centuries at the top of the India batting line-up, with only Sunil Gavaskar (33), Virender Sehwag (22) and Murali Vijay (12) doing so more often as openers.

He has also scored 649 runs in 2025, his most prolific year for runs since scoring 633 in 2017, at an impressive average of 49.9.

Rahul explained how a change in mindset, especially when batting at home, proved to be a big factor in his current form.

"I think the only thing that I've worked on in the last year or so has been maintaining my batting tempo. Just enjoying the phases that are not as exciting," said Rahul.

"For me, in my own head, obviously, when you travel abroad and play in seaming, swinging conditions with extra bounce, there's a lot of challenge doing that. And when we come back home, when there's three spinners playing and the field's spread out, you really need to dig in and need to get your runs with singles.

"The boundaries don't come that easily. So yeah, that's something that I've worked on.

"I needed to make that mental switch to enjoy doing that, enjoy grinding and getting 100s with singles and twos as well. So that's something that I've worked on in the last year or so.

"And yeah, I think that's the only difference that I can see. And probably that's why I wasn't doing that well previously when I played at home.

"I was a bit nervous playing there because I haven't been in the field for a good five or six weeks.

"So just to get back into that rhythm, just to get back into getting runs and spending time in the field and coming in day after day for four days and five days is a bit of a challenge physically as well. The conditions here have been really, really challenging physically."