KL Rahul (Image credit: X)

KL Rahul has opened, moved to the middle-order, batted even at No.3 and wasn’t hesitant to even don the gloves across formats. A player who started out as a top-order batter for Karnataka and made his two international debuts – in ODIs and T20Is – as an opener, KL Rahul has become that fluid mover in the Indian batting order.
In the recently concluded Champions Trophy, Rahul played the finisher role after his shift from usual No. 5 position in the format. A position where he enjoyed a lot of success in the 2023 ODI World Cup but the management’s call to have a left-hander in Axar Patel up the order meant Rahul had to move out of the comfort zone.
But wait, what is KL Rahul’s comfort zone? During the Border-Gavaskar Trophy vs Australia, Rahul started as an opener, moved to No. 3 when Rohit Sharma decided to open in the Boxing Day Test and was back at the top when the Indian captain wasn’t in the XI for the Sydney Test. And this was after he played majority of the Tests preceding the series as a middle-order batter.
While he last played a T20I back in the 2022 T20 World Cup, movement in the batting order could well continue when he turns up for Delhi Capitals – his fifth Indian Premier League franchise.

The 32-year-old is set to join the DC squad later this week and will most likely bat in the middle-order. The think-tank has been mulling over this since the preparations for the team’s camp got underway. With decent options at the top and lack of experience in the middle, including a last-minute pull out by Harry Brook, it was in the larger interest of the team to have the right-hander do something which he hasn’t done very often in the format – bat in the middle-order.
DC can expect blazing starts from Jake Fraser-McGurk, new vice-captain Faf Du Plessis and Abhishek Porel and then the likes of KL Rahul, Axar Patel, Tristian Stubbs can control that middle-overs period before the finishing act takes over. The management could well opt for this template when they apply finishing touches to their playing XI plans ahead of their opener versus Lucknow Super Giants in Visakhapatnam on March 24.
So, Rahul is likely to do something which he has hardly done in his T20 career – bat in the middle-order – but he will continue doing something which he has consistently done in his career – put the team first.