KL Rahul broke MS Dhoni’s big record, became the first Indian player to do so against New Zealand

KL Rahul Breaks MS Dhoni’s Record: KL Rahul created history in the second match of the three-match ODI series being played between India and New Zealand. He has become the first wicket-keeper batsman for India to score a century in ODI against New Zealand. KL Rahul achieved this feat leaving behind former wicketkeeper captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

In the second ODI match being played in Rajkot, KL Rahul made another record in his name apart from being the first wicket-keeper batsman to score a century. KL Rahul has become the first Indian to score a century in ODI in Rajkot. Rahul completed his eighth ODI century by hitting a six on a full toss ball from Kyle Jamieson in the 49th over. The wicketkeeper-batsman from Karnataka completed his century in just 87 balls and remained unbeaten on 112 runs with the help of 11 fours and one six in his innings against New Zealand.

Top 5 scores by Indian wicketkeepers against New Zealand (ODI)

• KL Rahul – 112* in Rajkot (2026)
• MS Dhoni – 84* at Napier (2009)
• Parthiv Patel – 56* in Chennai (2010)
• Rahul Dravid – 53* in Centurion (2003)
• Kiran More – 42* in Bengaluru (1987)

KL Rahul, who came to bat at number five, started his innings with utmost restraint. He could not score any runs on the first six balls, but as soon as he opened the account on the seventh ball, he concentrated on establishing himself at the crease. As soon as he became comfortable, Virat Kohli was out from the other end after scoring 23 runs and Team India reached a difficult phase.

KL Rahul took over the innings

At such a time, Rahul took the responsibility and along with Ravindra Jadeja worked to manage the innings. There was an important partnership of 73 runs between the two, which gave stability to the Indian innings. Jadeja was out after scoring 27 runs, but Rahul did not lose his patience. After this, he along with Nitish Kumar Reddy took the innings forward and took India to a respectable score. Thanks to Rahul’s intelligent batting, Team India was successful in scoring a strong score of 284 runs after losing 7 wickets in 50 overs.

Also read: KL Rahul created history, became the first batsman in the world to do so in ODI since 2025

KL Rahul scored 469 runs in 10 innings against New Zealand. During this period his average was 93.8. He played two centuries and one half-century against New Zealand. KL Rahul has remained unbeaten thrice in the last four ODI matches.