Long layoff or not, KL Rahul is indispensable to India's ODI middle order

There has been a lot of chatter around KL Rahul over the past year or so. During the T20 World Cup, there were murmurs if he was the right person to open the innings for India in the shortest format. At the 2023 iteration of the IPL, the conversation was around whether he was too conservative a player in a format and tournament that demanded flamboyance.

During the IPL, he picked up a serious injury that ruled him out for a considerable period. The discourse then became about whether he was too injury-prone and if India could depend on him. In any format.

In his absence, Ishan Kishan grabbed his ODI chance, both at the top of the order and in the middle order, making several pundits and fans ask if Rahul was suddenly surplus to requirements for India.

If all of that seems to have been blown a little out of proportion, welcome to the world and life of KL Rahul – a supremely talented cricketer, boasting a stroke range as expansive as anyone donning an India jersey currently, yet, a highly criticized cricketer, who, for some reason or the other, always seems to have someone to silence when walking out to bat.

It was not any different when the right-handed batter strode out to the middle against Pakistan. The only reason he was playing was because Shreyas Iyer, another batter returning from injury, picked up a back spasm very late. And here Rahul was, fronting up to a Pakistan attack fresh off a two-wicket salvo and perhaps smelling blood.

He seemed unfazed at the start. The fluency did not come instantly, though and he did look scratchy, especially on Sunday, and there might have been the odd groan from those watching. Slowly but surely, he grew into his innings, and by the time the reserve day came along, he was back in his element, churning out runs, looking languid, and making jaws drop – all at the same time.

This only makes you wonder why Rahul always seems to be fighting for his place. In one format or the other. A part of the answer lies in that very sentence.

Test cricket is looked upon as the purest format and there, he struggles at times with his technique. T20 cricket is the diet the average cricket fan consumes nowadays and there, the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) skipper struggles to find the right tempo.

Due to his performances in these versions of the game, the perception might have become that Rahul is simply not good enough to be India’s batting torchbearer. That, though, could not be farther from the truth in ODIs.

At the time of writing, he averages more than 47 and has a strike rate greater than 87 – both numbers, while not as mind-boggling as those produced by Babar Azam and Virat Kohli, are pretty solid.

Rahul has had world-class middle-order numbers since 2021

When talking specifically about batting in the middle order, Rahul is almost unparalleled. Throughout his career, he averages 58.66 when batting at No. 4, and 53 when batting at No. 5, a significant upgrade from when he opens, where he averages 43.57.

Since the start of 2021, he has batted in the middle order (No. 4-7) 14 times, scoring 658 runs at an average of 65.8 and a strike rate of 90.38. Among middle-order batters to have scored a minimum of 500 runs in this period, only Rassie van der Dussen has a better average.

Rahul has developed a knack for making his starts count too, registering two hundreds – one of which was a stupendous innings in a high-pressure game against Pakistan at the Asia Cup.

Only New Zealand vice-captain Tom Latham has more centuries than the LSG skipper, further reiterating how the Indian wicket-keeper is in a league of his own.

Away from the numbers too, there is enough evidence to explain why Rahul is indispensable to this Indian middle order. Apart from Suryakumar Yadav, who might not feature anyway, none of the other right-handed Indian middle-order batters really deploy the sweep. Rahul does, and that allows him to dominate spin.

On Monday, he unfurled that weapon to perfection against Iftikhar Ahmed and Shadab Khan, forcing them to change their lengths and inducing mistakes. This is not the reason why Rahul should play, but rather one of the many reasons why he should be the first name in India’s ODI middle order.

The other aspect that works in his favor is that when batting in the middle order, he usually walks in with the fields spread out. That allows him to hit the gaps and pick up singles. In T20s, he often gets into a rut inside the powerplay because he cannot pick up enough singles and does not want to take too many risks too early.

Here, he has the time, the luxury, and the perfect setting to do so, which eventually helps him lay a good foundation for India’s more belligerent stroke-makers – the likes of Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja to tee off.

Plus, his experience of having opened in Test cricket places him in better stead to stave off potential top-order collapses.

When you look at all of these factors, it seems unimaginable that Rahul’s place was being questioned until a couple of days ago. But that is how it was, and that is how fickle and funny public perception can sometimes be. The good thing is that Rahul understands how to shut out the noise – something he reiterates (almost literally) through his trademark celebration.

And on his first game back after injury, he proved that he was doing so metaphorically too. There was a period where the murmurs threatened to turn into clamors, especially when singles were hard to come by and his strike rate was just above 50.

But once he emerged from that period unscathed, India looked a different team altogether. That is what Rahul does in the middle order. He does not merely make it better. He transforms it.

That said, one or two bad performances, and social media experts and keyboard warriors will be back asking for his omission. It may seem slightly over the top. But it would not be a KL Rahul comeback arc if it was not that way.