'KL Rahul Should Consider Moving in Middle Order': India Legend's Advise to LSG Captain Ahead of T20 World Cup

Raging debate continues around the strike-rate of a few established India batters in the ongoing IPL season. Among these, KL Rahul is under close scrutiny and will be under pressure to claim a spot in India’s T20 World Cup spot considering his below-par strike rate.

Rahul, who leads Lucknow Super Giants, has a strike-rate of 128.57 after four innings of IPL 2024. He’s been opening the innings for LSG who have won three of their four matches so far.

At the same time there are the likes of Shivam Dube (160.86), Sanju Samson (150.84), Riyan Parag (158.11) among others who have been in red-hot form so far and must have made the selectors sit up and take notice.

With India’s top-three more or less confirmed, spots in the middle-order are up for grabs and Rahul will be hoping to make the cut. The fact that he can also keep the wickets tilts the balance a little in his favour, he may face strong competition from Samson who also offers a similar skillset and has been scoring runs at a much better strike-rate as well.

India fast bowling legend Jhulan Goswami feels that Rahul should start batting in the middle-order for his IPL franchise LSG given the T20 World Cup is on the horizon.

“Keeping #WorldCup in mind @klrahul should consider moving in the middle order for #LSG – Now is the time to shuffle those cards strategically!” Goswami posted on X (formerly Twitter).

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Not only Rahul, batting superstar Virat Kohli is also under scrutiny despite scoring 316 runs in five innings including a century and two half-centuries. Like Rahul, Kohli has also been opening the innings for his IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru but at times has struggled to to accelerate.

However, batting legend Brian Lara feels for an opener like Kohli to have a strike-rate in 130-140 is fine as he can always switch gears towards the end.

“…an opener like Kohli always has the chance of starting at 130, bat through the overs and finish at 160 or even higher, which is alright,” Lara said on Monday during the Star Sports Press Room.