Jaiswal and Rahul, who were the openers in most of the Border-Gavaskar series, started at the openings after India won the toss to bat first at Leeds. They racked up another fifty-plus wickets and gave the visitors off to a good start. The 39-year-old record of the highest opening partnership by an Indian couple at Leeds has been broken by Jaiswal and Rahul. The earlier best score of the opening Indian stand at the ground was by Gavaskar and Srikkanth, who had posted 64 in the 1st innings of the much-famous test match against England that India had won. It becomes the second opening partnership of an Indian duo aged more than 50 at the venue.
A solid start from #TeamIndia openers in Headingley đ
Fifty partnership đ between KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal đ
Updates â¶ïž https://t.co/CuzAEnBkyu#ENGvIND | @klrahul | @ybj_19 pic.twitter.com/IIVYwByVuY---Advertisement---— BCCI (@BCCI) June 20, 2025
Jaiswal-Rahul cap 12-year-drought in 50+ stand
In the meantime, Jaiswal and Rahul have broken a 12-year run of a 50+ partnership by visiting batsmen in the first innings (first and second innings included out of 4). The New Zealand duo of Peter Fulton and Hamish Rutherford, the duo that scored 55 in 2013, was the last visiting pair to do so.
After Ben Stokes, the captain of England, won the toss, India was requested to bat first. “We’ll bowl. Headingley is an excellent cricket pitch. We have played very good games here. Wish to attempt to apply the premature conditions. It was a long time coming, but it is a little weird that this is only the second series, but we are prepared. It has been a mixed game, and some lads have got county cricket, and we have had three days of good cricket. The bowling consists of the usual suspects in the top seven, in the form of Woakes, Brydon, Bashir, Tongue, and England skipper Ben Stokes said at the toss.
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