KL Rahul’s ability to adapt is one of his biggest assets, feels Michael Slater.

Batting at No. 4 in the second and penultimate ODI versus Australia here on Sunday, with captain Virat Kohli going back to his original No. 3 position, Rahul stroked a superb 52-ball 80 that helped India post an imposing total of 340/6.

“Rahul played an awesome knock… Just awesome batting.

“He took India to a very good total. Such totals are not easy to chase down,” Slater, who was among the panel of commentators for the match, said during the innings break.

Even in the first ODI at the Wankhede earlier this week, Rahul, coming on to bat at No. 3 then, had made a decent contribution of 47 while stitching a handy partnership with Shikhar Dhawan.

“He is flexible and can bat in any position. We can see that,” Slater, who made 74 Test and 42 ODI appearances for Australia, emphasised.

Michael Slater (Picture: Twitter/@mj_slats)

Slater also feels that Rahul so far hasn’t done a bad job either behind the stumps since donning the wicketkeeper’s gloves after Rishabh Pant suffered a concussion during the first ODI.

“Rahul is versatile too… Don’t see him doing a bad job as a ’keeper,” he said.

The former Australia Test opener also spoke highly of Marnus Labuschagne, who came into the ongoing ODI series after scoring tonnes of runs in the Australian summer versus Pakistan and New Zealand, which came after an impressive debut in the Ashes in England.

“Marnus has been brilliant so far. One can only hope he keeps on doing the job,” Slater said.

Slater also agreed that Labuschagne’s batting style has some similarities with that of Steve Smith. “Yeah, it is (similar)…

“They (Smith and Labuschagne) are very good friends and hang out together. He kind of looks up to Smith as his mentor. A nice bond between them,” Slater said.