Will KL Rahul move to the middle-order for LSG to push his T20WC case?

It’s been an extremely rough journey so far, but KL Rahul has finally reached a point in his career where he has firmly established himself as an indispensable asset in both ODIs and Tests.

As of this very moment, a fit Rahul is one of the first names on the teamsheet in ODI cricket. A fit Rahul also walks right into India’s middle-order in Test cricket, particularly away from home. 

But when it comes to T20Is, Rahul still has some way to go before he can attain the same status he has acquired in the other two formats. 

It’s been 492 days since Rahul last played a T20I for India, with his last T20I appearance coming way back in the T20 World Cup in 2022.

But a lot of water has flown under the bridge in the past year, so the door is by no means shut on Rahul when it comes to T20 cricket. He even has an outside chance of making it to the T20 World Cup in June.

For that, though, the 31-year-old will have to make a drastic shift in IPL 2024 — bat in the middle-order, something he’s not done in the IPL since 2016. 

Why Rahul can’t afford to open the batting for LSG if he has T20WC ambitions

Since the start of the 2018 season, Rahul has batted 79 times in the IPL. 78 of these innings have come right up the order, with a solitary inning coming at No.11 when he tore his quad against his former side Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Lucknow last season.

Rahul has hence exclusively operated as an opener in the IPL for the best part of eight years. But donning the same role this season might not aid him in his quest to get back to the Indian T20I side.

The reasons are straightforward. 

For one, India are already stacked with openers, with Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, and Rohit Sharma all penciled in as sure-shot members to make it to the final fifteen. Apart from the aforementioned three, there is also Ruturaj Gaikwad, who is already being groomed for a leadership role and scored a breakthrough ton against Australia as recently as three months ago. 

All these four names are ahead of Rahul in the pecking order (for different reasons). It is highly unlikely that Rahul will jump the queue and leapfrog these players even if he ends up having the best IPL 2024 among the lot, opening the batting.

Secondly, and most importantly, it’s down the order that there’s a vacancy for the wicket-keeper’s slot, for which Rahul will be contesting. 

Jitesh Sharma, the current incumbent and the favorite to start the T20WC as India’s first-choice wicket-keeper, bats in the middle-order. As does Sanju Samson, another prime contender for the WK slot.

READ: Pandya’s strike rate, Rahul’s role & more: what to keep an eye on in IPL 2024

Ishan Kishan opens the batting, yes, but if Rahul is to usurp Jitesh/Samson and make it into India’s XI as the first-choice wicket-keeper, he’ll unquestionably have to prove his credentials by batting in the middle-order. 

Why Rahul moving down the order will boost his T20WC chances

There is no guarantee that Rahul will get back into consideration for the T20WC if he bats in the middle-order for LSG, but dropping down the order will certainly boost his chances. 

Where he has an edge over the other contenders is that he’s ‘been there and done that’ in the middle-order in the biggest competition in cricket, the 50-over World Cup. So if Rahul can somehow drop down the order in the IPL and show that he can thrive in the middle-order in T20s, he’ll unquestionably come into T20WC conversations owing to his experience. 

The challenge of batting at No.4 / No.5 in T20s

Doing the above, though, is easier said than done. Batting in the middle-order in T20s is a completely different proposition compared to batting in the middle-order in ODIs. 

Batting at No.4/No.5 in ODI cricket is all about consolidation. What matters there is having the ability to take the game deep. There’ll be occasions when you’ll be needed to accelerate from the get go but those situations will be few and far between. Largely, you’ll be simply required to be busy.

In T20s, meanwhile, batting at No.4 / No.5 will require you to often take the game on from ball one. You’ll need to keep the momentum going if you’re coming on the back of a good platform, and if you’re walking in after a bad start, you’ll need to shift the momentum by putting pressure back on the opposition. 

The best No.4s / No.5s in the world — Maxwell, Suryakumar, Markram, Pooran etc — are all masters at doing this. 

Rahul certainly has it in him to adapt to the needs of batting in the middle-order in T20s, but he’ll only come into selection consideration if he shows that he can fit the bill.

The encouraging signs for Rahul (why he could potentially click down the order in T20s)

A huge plus for Rahul is that the underlying numbers are encouraging. We know for a fact that he won’t be a deer in the headlights down the order.

Most openers tend to struggle when they’re pushed down the order because of two things: one, their preference for pace (over spin) and two, their inability to rotate strike efficiently in the middle overs.

Both these things are not a concern when it comes to Rahul. 

Across IPL 2022 & 2023, he averaged a staggering 106.33 versus spin (while striking at 123.64). The numbers in the middle-overs (7-15 phase) against spin were impressive too, with him averaging 69.33 while striking at 126.83. 

Rahul, in recent times, has been guilty of ‘wasting’ the powerplay by playing one too many dots but he’s been pretty busy outside the field restrictions. 

Since 2022, Rahul has a dot percentage of just 26.40% in overs 7-15, which is 10th best among 31 batters who have scored 200 or more runs in the middle-overs across the last two seasons. 

Considering the difference between him and third-ranked Faf du Plessis is just 2%, it’s fair to say that Rahul is in the top echelon of middle-over batters when it comes to minimizing dot balls. 

Certain openers tend to struggle to find boundaries outside the field restrictions when they’re pushed down the order, but Rahul is not one of those batters. 

In the IPL since 2022, Rahul has been striking at 142.6 in the 7-15 phase overall. He’s been finding the boundary rope once every 6.4 balls, which is pretty much in the same ballpark as Markram (6.2), David Miller (6.0) and Hardik Pandya (6.1). 

These numbers will likely have to go up a notch if Rahul starts batting in the middle-order for LSG regularly, game after game, but clearly, the base is already there for him to launch from. 

Why the move could also be beneficial for LSG 

The arrival of Devdutt Padikkal means that LSG will have no option but to push one of Padikkal / Rahul down the order, with Quinton de Kock being a lock at the top of the order.

With Padikkal not finding a great deal of success in the middle-order in Rajasthan Royals (RR), the wiser of the two options for LSG would be to push Rahul down the order.

The move might actually end up being a blessing for the franchise, which struggled to find stability across the No.3 / No.4 / No.5 positions. 

In IPL 2023, Lucknow had a total of seven players bat across the #3 / #4 / #5 positions, with no batter ending up with a fixed batting position. 

Moving Rahul to No.4 could solve this issue. It might enable the franchise to push someone like a Nicholas Pooran to No.3 and continue with Marcus Stoinis at No.5. Rahul at No.4 might also end up being the perfect foil for the two batters on either side of him, Pooran and Stoinis. 

All things considered, then, Rahul giving up the opening spot to move to No.4 might just be the best outcome for all parties involved.