No Indian batter, barring Suryakumar Yadav, managed to score over 15 against South Africa in Perth on Sunday. But it is KL Rahul who is drawing flak for his failure to tackle the fiery attack on a bouncy wicket.
It was only on the eve of the Perth match that batting coach Vikram Rathour came to Rahul’s defence, saying that two matches weren’t “a good sample size” to judge a batter’s form and that the opener was “batting well”.
Rahul has so far lasted 34 balls in three matches: eight against Pakistan, 12 versus Netherlands and 14 against South Africa. His scores of 4, 9 and 9 in the World Cup so far sum up his struggles, but given the lack of specialist openers in the squad, he may continue.
There have been repeated calls to slot Rishabh Pant as an opener but the team management hasn’t shown much interest to experiment. The team’s conservative approach to such issues has led to Rahul keeping his place despite six single-digit scores in 15 T20Is since the last World Cup.
Rahul is seldom at ease going for the jugular from the outset. He has always been content with settling down and then attacking the bowlers. As a result, his strike-rate has never matched the best in the business. While his strikerate was 130.76 last year, it has dropped to 121.30 in 2022.
This prompted him to once say that “strike-rates are very, very overrated”. Such rhetoric, however, can never make up for his failures on the field. Does Rahul deserve a place in the XI or should he be shifted to the middle order? That seems to be the biggest debate going into India’s next group league match, against Bangladesh on Wednesday.
“The team management should give him another chance. I know he is not in the best of form but he is a proven performer,” former chief selector MSK Prasad told The Telegraph.
“Rahul should go back and watch some of his previous innings. He is an aggressive player and if he starts thinking aggressively he will get runs. I’m sure Rathour and Dravid will provide him with the much-needed confidence to overcome the pressure and perform in the next match.”
Another reason why Rahul may continue against Bangladesh is the injury to Dinesh Karthik. The wicketkeeper-batsman had to leave the field midway in South Africa’s innings because of lower-back spasms prompting Pant to don the big gloves. This unexpected opportunity may open the doors for Pant and the Team India think tank may not be keen to ring in more changes in such a scenario.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has said that there is a need for mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton to step in and help the vice-captain.
“We have Paddy Upton as the mental conditioning coach... While the batting coach can tell him his mistakes, there is a need for the mental conditioning coach to talk with the player to increase his confidence. He should tell Rahul that he has got the talent and he can score big runs,” Gavaskar said on Sports Tak.
“Look, you have just played three matches and you have to play a total of 5 matches in the Super 12 stage. You do not have any other opener, I do not think you have an opener who can take the place of Rahul. So you need to show patience with him,” Gavaskar added.
But wouldn’t it be too late to continue with a non-performer for another match? Perhaps Rahul’s Adelaide innings will provide some clues to his future.
