Rahul adapting to a new ultra-aggressive role in T20s
Rahul adapting to a new ultra-aggressive role in T20s: KL Rahul attempted to send Daniel Sams over midwicket during last month’s decisive Twenty20 International between Australia and Hyderabad.
Still, he only produced a top edge collected by the wicketkeeper. On Sunday, after bowling a 144 kph lifter against South Africa in the T20I in Guwahati, Anrich Nortje snuck in a leg-cutter. Rahul compensated and hit a six of 80 meters over midwicket, even though the ball held up and straightened after pitching.
Two completely unrelated occurrences, however, the inning in which each took place may prove to be a significant factor. The Sams ball was hit for six in the opening over, while Rahul’s six off Nortje’s 20th delivery came after he faced 21 balls.
Statement
After scoring a century against Afghanistan at the Asia Cup, Virat Kohli made a profound observation. He admitted that he had tried too hard to generate huge hits in T20s because “I was desperate to accomplish something that wasn’t my game.”
Even though Rahul is more at ease hitting sixes than Kohli is, they are comparable in that, at their most carefree, both batters rely more on time than the power to find the boundary.
Also, the occasional muscled boundary will ultimately come off, as it did for Rahul against Nortje, so long as the time is taken care of, as it was in Guwahati.
Except for a handful of edges, all of Rahul’s boundaries up to that point had been the result of his impeccable timing, hitting square on both sides of the wicket with his signature back-foot punches and pick-ups.
Which is why his 57 off 28 deliveries on Sunday was his fourth-fastest T20I innings and his fastest in nearly a year.
This innings highlights Rahul’s ongoing revival after a two-month sabbatical due to surgery and sickness and amid worries over his strike rate, which has indeed fallen in the last two years.
That can only be a comfort for the team’s management, who has stuck with the tried-and-true top order of the captain, the former captain, and the vice-captain despite mounting pressure to bring in new blood more equipped to handle the rigors of Twenty20 cricket.
T20I
Rahul has played 10 T20Is in the five weeks since the Asia Cup, his first T20I tournament since November 2021. After months of drought, a torrential downpour has hit.
He started a little tetchy on the sluggish UAE surfaces, which is understandable. Even when India scored 192 for 2, he only scored 36 out of 39 against lowly Hong Kong. But in India’s meaningless tournament-ending match against Afghanistan, he blasted 62 off 41, and then he started the Australia series with 55 off 35 on a belter in Mohali.
“After playing in a few series after returning from injury, I feel my confidence return.
Ask any player, and they’ll tell you that the hardest part of their job is keeping their thoughts in check so they can convince themselves things like, “Your body is fine, you won’t be harmed when you dive, or when you sprint,” as Rahul put it after the Mohali game.
Strike-rate issue
At the same press conference, when asked about his low strike rate, Rahul had bristled and said, “what criticism?” before saying he was trying to improve.
In general, we use strike rates. Whether he needed to bat at a 200 strike rate or whether the team could have won striking at 100 or 120 is something you never see,” he had stated.
In 2020, Rahul had a T20I strike rate of 140.76; in 2021 and 2022, it dropped to 130.76 and 129.11, respectively. His balls-per-boundary average has been relatively constant over the years, with 6.1 in 2020, 5.8 in 2021, and 6.4 in 2022. The percentage of made contacts has increased dramatically from 28.6 in 2020 to 34.4 in 2021 to 38.8 in 2022.
India can afford an opener with a dot-ball percentage close to 40, despite his unbeaten 51 off 56 against South Africa in Thiruvananthapuram, which was appropriate for the game conditions (a short chase on a spicy track).
The openers are practically compelled to attack even more thanks to Kohli’s presence at No. 3, where he acts as a flexible anchor. There were only six dot balls out of a total of 28 in the Guwahati knock, which is encouraging.
Score
This year, Rahul has already scored 18, which is the highest he’s hit in a calendar year and may indicate India’s more aggressive batting approach under the current team management.
On top of that, he is hitting nearly as many sixes as fours (18 to 19), although his career average up until 2021 was about 1 six for every 2 fours.
When batting first, we want to take calculated chances. Since the last Twenty20 World Cup, roughly 10-12 months of preparation have gone into this. We’ve tried to accomplish this as a unit whenever we’ve had the chance. Rahul admitted in Guwahati that this was a major takeaway from the previous World Cup.
This elite group struggles with putting their knowledge into practice. All three, Rahul included, are conventional batters who were taught early on to value their wickets highly.
When challenged to play outside of their comfort zones, especially Kohli and Rahul, it is understandable that they veer to the extreme, driving themselves to muscle the ball immediately.
Neither of them is Suryakumar Yadav, but as Rahul’s Guwahati innings showed, it may be best for this top order to succeed in Australia if they focus on their strengths early and then transition to slogging.
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