MATCH STORIES
Follow UsSix games into Lucknow Super Giants’ IPL 2024 campaign, KL Rahul is averaging only 34.00. Purely statistically, it’s his lowest average in a season in nearly a decade. You’ll have to go back to 2015 to find the last instance of Rahul averaging less in an IPL campaign.
So the LSG skipper hasn’t really been making his case for T20 World Cup selection with his performances this season. At least in terms of runs.
However, there’s still cause for celebration for those who still believe Rahul can get back to his best in the shortest format and turn back into the beast he was back in 2018.
The reason? The intent he’s been showing upfront with the bat.
Rahul, for the longest time, has been one of the most prolific run-getters in the IPL, but despite being an opener and despite having the powerplay at his disposal, he’s tended to start painfully slow.
In the IPL between 2019 and 2023, Rahul amassed a whopping 2,779 runs at an average of 52.43. However, in this period, he struck at an eye-watering 116.8 in the powerplay.
Just to put into context how bad this is, 13 other openers played 40+ innings during this period. Among them, nobody else had a powerplay strike rate less than 120. Only four other batters had a powerplay strike rate less than 130.
Rahul was getting the runs but his lack of intent in the powerplay was increasingly starting to become a problem. His abject showing in the T20 World Cup in 2022, where he struck at 89.47 in the powerplay and failed to show up when it mattered, ended up being the final straw. He has not played T20 cricket for India post November 2022.
As far as making a comeback in the T20I side is concerned, Rahul still has a long way to go, but in IPL 2024, he’s taken the first step towards doing so by showing intent upfront that he hasn’t shown in over half a decade.
Six games into IPL 2024, Rahul has been striking at 150.00 in the powerplay. Not since 2018 has the right-hander shown such intent against the new ball.
After a somewhat typically timid start to the season in the powerplay, Rahul brought out his 2018 self in LSG’s previous clash against DC, where he hammered 30 runs off 14 balls in the powerplay. It was his joint-highest score for LSG in the powerplay, and also by some distance his highest strike rate in an innings for LSG in the powerplay.
There have been times in the past where Rahul has produced such ‘flash in the pan’ innings but the LSG skipper backed up the blitz against DC on April 12 (Friday) with another brisk knock against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Eden Gardens today (April 14).
Rahul’s start against KKR today was no 30* off 14, but he finished the powerplay with a strike rate of 176.92, smashing three fours and a six. He ended up amassing 23 runs off 13 balls, and took his fair share of risks despite Lucknow losing two wickets in the powerplay, including the big one of Quinton de Kock.
Early days, but of the six innings Rahul has played in IPL 2024, 50% of them have seen him register a SR over 165.00.
It might sound quite ‘normal’ for an opener, but here’s some added context: across IPL 2022 & IPL 2023, there was not a single innings in which Rahul registered a strike rate over 160 in the powerplay (minimum 8 balls).
The increase in the strike rate has been a direct result of Rahul choosing to attack far more deliveries. In the powerplay in IPL 2024, Rahul has attacked 57% of the balls he’s faced. It’s by far the highest (balls attacked percentage) figure for him in an IPL season in the past six years.
Much to his and LSG’s dismay, Rahul hasn’t been able to translate these quick starts into big scores that are substantial. However, one reckons that a big score might just be around the corner for the LSG skipper, who’s looked in sublime touch all season.
It looks like all hope might not be lost, after all. Rahul might yet end up going back to the intent-machine that he was back in 2018.
