Happy to be compared with Dravid: Lokesh Rahul

New Delhi, Oct 30 (IANS) South Zone opener Lokesh Rahul, who scored an unbeaten 168 to guide his team to take a 32-run lead against Central Zone in the Duleep Trophy final at the Ferozeshah Kotla here Thursday, expressed his happiness over his comparison with legendary batsman Rahul Dravid.

“I feel happy when I am compared with him. As a child, I used to watch a lot of his batting and also Sachin’s (Tendulkar). But It would be great if I can score the amount of runs Dravid has scored,” the 22-year-old right-hander told reporters.

“Also, I have learned a lot playing alongside South African AB de Villiers and India’s Virat Kohli in the Indian Premier League (IPL),” the Karnataka batsman, who scored more than 1,000 runs last year, added.

Talking about Thursday’s knock, “It was a good wicket to bat. Last year, I was getting out after getting a lot of starts. So I am working to convert the starts into bigger hundreds and today’s knock it’s my highest score in first-class cricket. It’s one of my best knocks.”

Rahul said that they will look to swell the lead Friday.

“Me and (Hanuma) Vihari need to get off to a good start tomorrow morning and our game plan will be to increase the lead as much as possible,” he said.