Asia Cup 2022: Time for KL Rahul to repay the faith

As India try to mount another assault on the T20 World Cup, the ongoing DP World Asia Cup is a crucial tournament as they try to firm up plans and positions. The squad that will travel to Australia for the showpiece in October-November, is more or less rubber stamped except for a few slots. Which captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid will deliberate on before the final squad is announced.

India has shed their safety-first approach and has shifted to an attacking philosophy. The way to go now is to go for broke from ball one. A philosophy England has so successfully perfected over the years. But one of the talking points heading into the T20 World Cup is that of the top three or four and especially the opening slot. KL Rahul, who is the side’s vice-captain, is being given a longer run at the top even though India has many options.

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Rahul needs to perform to stay in this contest

On Sunday, in the high-voltage clash against arch-rivals Pakistan, Rahul strode out to the middle with Rohit. And although his stay was brief, done in by the pace of young and exciting pacer Naseem Shah. It seems that India might not tinker too much during this tournament and will give Rahul a longer run. Rahul is returning from an almost three-month lay-off after undergoing a sports hernia surgery. He had also contracted Covid and his return was delayed. The 30-year-old made his return in the One-Day International series against Zimbabwe, where he was named the captain.

And although he didn’t get to bat in the first ODI with Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill acing the chase of 190. Rahul scored one and 30 in the second and third ODIs respectively. They were meager returns, albeit in a different format. India experimented by sending Rishabh Pant up the order to open in the T20 series against England. And then, in the West Indies, India went left field and sent Suryakumar Yadav to open the batting.

Yadav, who normally bats at No.4, had scored 24 from 16 deliveries in the opening match against the West Indies and 11 from five balls in the second game. Rohit explained at that time that the team management wanted the players to be flexible and be ready to bat anywhere in the batting order. “We want the guys to be able to bat anywhere and don’t want them to be batting in specific positions. We want the guys to be flexible, there are two ways to look at it depending on certain players,” Rohit had said.