Rahul hopeful of serving India for a long period alongside Karun Nair

KL Rahul is quite excited about Karun Nair`s return to India`s Test squad in the five-match Test series against England.

The duo have been playing cricket together since the age-group level and have had their own struggles to make the cut in the national team.

“We started playing cricket as 11-year-old boys together, and we have been on this journey ever since. Both of us have had our ups and downs. He got his opportunity, scored a triple hundred, faced a bit of tough time after that for a lot of reasons,” Rahul told Delhi Capitals.

Rahul is also hopeful of serving the national team for a longer time with his childhood teammate.

“To have that drive to make a comeback to the Indian team despite all the hardships is commendable. I hope both of us can play for a very long time for the Indian team,” he said.

Ahead of the series, KL feels that it will be a challenge for Team India, compared to a younger side.

“I spoke to my coach as well to get prepared for this assignment. It`s always a challenge coming to England as they are a pretty good side, especially when they play at home. It`s going to be a challenge for all of us as we are a comparatively young team,” he said.

Team India will clash against England under the leadership of the newly appointed captain, Shubman Gill. One of the major concerns for the visitors entering the series will be the feature of their lead pacer, Jasprit Bumrah. The pacer has been advised not to play consecutive Test matches due to his workload management.

The five-match Test series will take place from June 20 to August 4, with matches scheduled at Headingley (Leeds), Edgbaston (Birmingham), Lord`s and The Oval (London), and Old Trafford (Manchester).

Ind vs Eng Test series: Squads

India squad: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc, wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudarshan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana.

England: Ben Stokes (Durham) – Captain, Shoaib Bashir (Somerset), Jacob Bethell (Warwickshire), Harry Brook (Yorkshire), Brydon Carse (Durham), Sam Cook (Essex), Zak Crawley (Kent), Ben Duckett (Nottinghamshire), Jamie Overton (Surrey), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Jamie Smith (Surrey), Josh Tongue (Nottinghamshire), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire).

(With PTI Inputs)

This article first appeared on Mid Day