As India are set to face off against Australia in the three-match T20I series, starting Tuesday in Mohali, all eyes would be on how KL Rahul will perform with the bat. Notably, Rahul came back after injury in the recently-concluded Asia Cup, where the right-handed batter scored 132 runs in five matches.
After Virat Kohli smashed a century in the Super 4 match against Afghanistan, the discussion emerged about changing the opening combination with Rohit Sharma and Kohli. However, on Sunday, skipper Rohit confirmed that Rahul would open the batting in the T20 World Cup 2022, with Kohli coming to the third position or backup opener.
When it comes to the shortest format, Rahul’s strike rate has always been a cause of concern. In 61 T20Is, the Karnataka stalwart has a strike rate of 140.91. Regarding the same, Rahul, ahead of the first T20I against Australia opened up and said he is working on it and will focus on improving his batting further.
“Look, obviously something that every player wants to work on. No one is perfect, everybody is working towards something, obviously, strike rates are taken on an overall basis. You never see when a batter has played at a certain strike rate, whether it was important to play for him to play at a 200 strike rate or whether the team could have still won with him playing at 120-130. These are the things that no one analyses,” said Rahul as quoted by NDTV.
“Yes, it is something that I am working at, the roles that have been defined to each player in the last 10-12 months have been very clear, and everyone is working towards it. And, I am just working towards how can I better myself as an opening batter and how I can have an impact for my team whenever I go out to bat,” he added.
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