Virat Kohli Speaks On KL Rahul's Role In ODI Team

KL Rahul‘s omission from India squad for the upcoming three-match One-Day International series against New Zealand has raised a lot of eyebrows. The right-handed batsman was tried out at number 4 in Sri Lanka but without much success. However, he was retained in the team for the Australia series but could not play a single game before being surprisingly dropped for the forthcoming three-match series.

And with Rahul’s ouster leaving everyone a bit puzzled, India skipper Virat Kohli, while speaking ahead of the series-opener against the Kiwis, has made it clear that the team is keen to avoid a Ajinkya Rahane-like situation who was eventually made the backup opener after being tried out as a middle-order batsman for quite long.

“This series, Dinesh Karthik has come in for KL. We felt KL, because he opens mostly, we don’t want to have a situation like Jinks (Ajinkya Rahane) was going through in between – having to play in the middle order forcefully because of what the top order was doing,” Kohli said. “We thought it’s better that he (Rahul) gets some game time in the first-class level so we got in Dinesh who has always played in the middle order.

“He is more comfortable and more aware of how to bat in the middle order. We need to strike that good balance, bring in guys who have the ability, who have done well in domestic cricket, who have done well for India A, you know track their performances and give them chances accordingly,” he added.

Well, looking to make Rahul another backup opener looks like the most wise decision as of now after the way he failed miserably in Sri Lanka. Moreover, Rahul also has shown promising sign as an opener in ODIs.  He started his ODI career as an opener and made an instant impression by becoming the first Indian to score a century on ODI debut, against Zimbabwe in June 2016. However, he failed to grab his chances when he was asked to open the innings against England earlier this year.

But recently, he got a chance to open when he was drafted in for the warm-up matches against New Zealand and scored 68 off 75 balls in the first game before being dropped from the next game.

Kohli also had a word of praise for Ajinkya Rahane who has grabbed the opportunities with both the hands in recent times. After failing to capitalise on the opportunities last year when he was asked to open the innings following Shikhar Dhawan‘s axing from the team, the right-handed batsman has proved his mettle in the last few series. He ended the five-match in West Indies as the highest run-getter, scoring three half-centuries and a century to bag the Man of the Series award.

However, he had to make way for Rohit Sharma once the right-handed batsman returned for the series against Sri Lanka before he got a lucky break when Dhawan pulled out of the series against Australia due to family reasons. Rahane grabbed the opportunity with both the hands and slammed four fifties in the five-match series.

“He’s definitely grabbed his opportunities as the third opener,” Kohli said of Rahane. “As I mentioned, there was KL as well competing for the spot for a bit, but Jinks has really performed well, he stood up and taken his chances. That’s how the dynamics of the team work, when you have four guys who play in a similar position, then obviously one of them will have to miss out. Even in the three, only two can play in the XI. Again, as I mentioned, we don’t want to confuse him too much making him play in the middle order.

“You need to find your game in ODI cricket, you need to understand how to go about things in ODI cricket and he’s always been very solid at the top order because of his technique. And he likes playing there as well, it gives him freedom to go after the bowlers. We don’t want to confuse him, he’s in a happy space, he knows whenever someone is not going through a good phase or there is an injury coming up, he’s there, he is right at the doorstep waiting to play a game whenever the team requires him to. He’s pretty happy with his batting at the moment,” he added.