Scrutiny intensifies over KL Rahul's protracted struggle with bat

KL Rahul (Pic: AFP)

There appears no end to Lucknow Super Giants skipper KL Rahul's struggles with the bat in IPL 2024, adding more fuel to the fire of speculations about his place in India's T20I set-up ahead of the T20 World Cup starting in West Indies-USA from June 1 onwards.

Against Gujarat Titans (GT) at Lucknow's Ekana Stadium, Rahul played a struggling, conservative T20 knock, scoring just 33 runs in 31 balls, with three boundaries. His runs came at a sub-par strike rate of 106.45.

Having played four IPL 2024 matches so far, he has scored only 126 runs at an average of 31.50, with an underwhelming strike rate of 128.57. Rahul has scored a half-century, a knock of 58 in 44 balls against RR, but has otherwise registered scores of 15 in nine balls, 20 in 14 balls and 33.

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The wicketkeeper-batter has been disappointing with the bat in the IPL since last year, a season which was cut short by an injury. In the 2023 IPL, he scored 274 runs in nine matches at an average of 34.25 and a sub-par strike rate of 113.22, with two half-centuries and best score of 74.

Overall since IPL 2023, Rahul has featured in 13 matches for LSG, scoring 400 runs at an average of 33.33, with a strike rate of just over 117. He has scored three fifties, with the best score of 74. Though other numbers still seem fine, his strike rate looks ordinary for a format that requires openers to hit big from ball one.

Of 57 players who have faced atleast 150 balls across the last two IPLs, he is the only batter with a strike rate of below 120.

This raises concern over Rahul's intent while batting, as Ishan Kishan (170.37 strike rate), Sanju Samson (150.84 strike rate), Jitesh Sharma (126.08 strike rate) and Rishabh Pant (154.54) have shown better intent while batting in this IPL, making their T20 World Cup prospects very strong.

Though the batter has made a successful comeback in Tests and ODIs, his last T20I to this day remains against England, the semifinal clash of T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia, where India lost by 10 wickets. The tournament was a disappointing one for Rahul, scoring 120 runs in six matches at an average of 21.33 and a strike rate of just 120.75, with two fifties. Since then, the selectors have gone with much younger, attacking players like Kishan, Jitesh and Samson in short format.