Indian former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar suggest KL Rahul to continue to bat at no.5 in order to overcome the middle-order batting problem. After MS Dhoni’s retirement India struggles to find a better player to replace him in white-ball format.
Sanjay Manjrekar Suggest KL Rahul to bat at No.5
Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma used to open the match while KL Rahul is expected to balance the middle order. Owing to Rohit Sharma’s injury he missed the limited over format games. While India goes with Mayank Agarwal and Dhawan pair to open the 1st ODI match.
Rahul was in ominous form during the IPL 2020 as he was the top-scorer in the tournament with 670 runs. But with India, he is likely to be played in the middle-order. Former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar has also advocated for Rahul to be played as a No.5 while giving his nod to Mayank Agarwal as an opener.
The reason why Manjrekar needs Rahul to bat at no. 5
“See, the thing is that India has a lot of depth when it comes to white-ball cricket. Rohit is almost irreplaceable but India has options. Let’s not forget, in his last four innings, Rahul scored more than 80 runs in three innings while batting in the middle order (number five) in India’s last ODI series in New Zealand.
The credit needs to go to Rahul that he first got a hundred as an opener and then he registered scores of more than 80 while batting at number five,” Manjrekar told ANI.
“India’s problem in white-ball cricket for a long time now has been the number four-six slots. In the World Cup, that hurt India a lot and I feel this area needs to be addressed. That is why I feel, Rahul needs to bat at number five because he has done so well in that position and India needs a dependable middle order.
Mayank has a Test match sort of temperament and his recent form can be used by India at the top of the order,” he added.
Both Mayank and Rahul could not contribute much with the bat in the first ODI against Australia. Mayank hit an 18-ball 22 where Rahul was dismissed after scoring 12 runs.
