Team India and Australia are gearing up to square off in a pulsating three-match T20I series. The first T20I of the series is scheduled to be played on September 20 (Tuesday). For the Men in Blue, the series against Australia and later South Africa will be very crucial considering the T20 World Cup that is hovering on the horizon. India still needs to iron out flaws and find answers to some lingering questions, one of them being the slow strike rate of KL Rahul.
Captain Rohit Sharma maintained a strong stance and affirmed that KL Rahul will be the first-choice opening for Team India in the T20 World Cup. Having said that, Rahul's tendency to use a few deliveries up front has often subjected him to criticism, which by the way, has only increased after Virat Kohli scored a spectacular century while opening the batting in the Asia Cup 2022 match against Afghanistan.
On the eve of the first T20I against Australia, Rahul reflected on the topic of strike rate and underlined that it is something he is working on according to the needs of the team.
"No one's perfect. No one in the dressing room is perfect. Everyone's working towards something, everyone has a certain role to do. Obviously, strike rates are taken on an overall basis. You'll never see when that batsman has played at a certain strike rate, whether it was important for him to play at a 200-strike rate, or whether the team could have still won playing at a 100-120 strike rate. So these are things that not everybody analyses. That's why when you look at it, it looks low," Rahul said during press conference.
"Yes, it is something that I am working on. Obviously, the rules that have been defined to each player in the last 10-12 months have been, you know very clearly and the player understands what is expected out of them and everyone's working towards it," he added.
Since 2021, the right-handed batter has a strike rate of 127.96 in T20Is. After India's poor performance in the T20 World Cup last year, there has been an attempted change in strategy for Indian batters in the powerplay, where they have looked to be more aggressive in their approach. It would be interesting to see how KL Rahul approaches his innings in the series against Australia.
