KL Rahul’s Adaptability Is India’s Gain, But His Own Loss | Champions Trophy 2025

“Sometimes, I am sitting there thinking what more can I do?”

Since the start of 2020, a total of 78 players have batted in the middle-order (No.4 to 7) ten times or more. No one has more runs than KL Rahul. No one has a better strike rate.

When asked at a press conference why India prefers Rahul over Rishabh Pant, India’s head coach snapped back, saying “KL averages 50 in ODI cricket”. Rarely would a first-choice player, backed by the management, be contemplative about his place in the side. But this is KL Rahul, and his wonderfully odd ODI career.

Rahul is in his ninth year of ODI cricket, and has missed 85 matches, almost as many as he’s played. He’s never entered the top 10 of the ICC batting rankings, batted everywhere from No.1 to No.7, but has still featured in two World Cups, two ODI Asia Cups and now a Champions Trophy.

For KL Rahul, change is the only constant

The first half of KL’s ODI career had unpredictability. The second half, dependability. But there’s been a constant throughout: his ever-changing batting position. And the discussion over his strike-rate, ranked only 22nd among those 78 names. For some, Rahul excels in a very specific tempo, struggling to switch gears if needed. Others just refer to him as crisis-man.

The road has never been straight for him. It feels like generations ago that a 24-year-old Rahul was teeing off in Harare, smashing a debut hundred as opener in a new-look ODI team. A year later in 2017, on a disastrous trip to Sri Lanka, Rahul started off at No.3 and kept getting pushed down one spot with each game.

With Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli, a place in the top-three was hard to come by. India’s fluctuating needs became the definition of Rahul’s ODI career.

At the 2019 World Cup, for instance, there was immense scrutiny over India’s middle-order makeup. Rahul started at four, got pushed down to six, but was out there opening halfway through with Dhawan ruled out.

It ended with a century against Sri Lanka, and one of the first instances of his now-famous hand in ear celebration, a signal to shut out all the outside noise. He ended as India’s third highest run-getter behind Kohli and Rohit, but was dropped right after.

“You know, I obviously was frustrated because I played the World Cup and I’m not playing this [West Indies tour after]. Makes no sense,” he vented to Chris Gayle later. The comment was a rare deviation from Rahul’s public image: rarely outspoken, always measured and largely expressionless. But it showed that deep inside the constant shuttling wasn’t helping. Those close to him knew.

“We groomed him as an opener,” Samuel Jayaraj, Rahul’s childhood coach, told Wisden in 2022. “We always said, you will be an opener. It was difficult. When the Indian team wanted him to play in the middle order, I said ‘There shouldn’t be any order, you should not stick to any particular number. You have to go and play’.

“As his childhood coach, I felt he was a little disturbed when he was not having a permanent batting position. But he slowly adjusted to it.”

When he got to captain the side in 2022, Rahul jumped at the chance to open. “In the last 14-15 months, I have batted at No. 5, No. 4, different positions,” Rahul said. “That’s what the team needed of me then. Now I think with Rohit not being here, I would bat at the top of the order.”

Next series, he was back to No.4.

Rahul averaged 75.33 at the 2023 World Cup, and currently 106.00 at the 2025 Champions Trophy, batting at No.5 in the former, and No.6 in the latter. In both these, he’s also been India’s first-choice wicketkeeper.

So what is Rahul’s ODI legacy?

Few players who have missed as many matches as him, and have bounced around as often as him, would continue to be around for this long. Especially in modern-day India, where more often than not, there are options galore with backups of backups groomed to take over when needed.

Navjot Singh Sidhu, in a typical tongue-in-cheek comment, recently said: “Even a spare tyre is not used as much as Rahul”.

Bottomline, he’s the five-in-one solution: an emergency opener, an anchor, a middle-order floater, a wicketkeeper and a stand-in captain too. Who wouldn’t want such a benefit during big tournaments?

Also read: Rohit Sharma 2.0 has been great for India, there is no need to revert to 1.0

In another month, Rahul will be 33, the same age Kohli was when he was replaced as India’s ODI captain. When Kohli was relinquishing his white-ball captaincy, Sunil Gavaskar had suggested Rahul be groomed as future captain. That never happened, and now might never happen.

Rahul is at a stage of his career where his seniors are rehearsing their goodbye speeches, and the younger lot has taken over the dais. Each passing milestone reminds you how incredibly baffling his career has been: somehow, in the last game, he became the third-fastest Indian to 3,000 ODI runs by innings.

In fact, among all India players with as many ODI runs as him, only three have a better average: Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma; three of the greatest of his time. After 84 ODIs, Kohli’s average was almost identical to Rahul’s, but he was also ten years younger to what Rahul is today.

It makes you wonder what Rahul could have been, had he played more and moved around less. He’s survived through multiple dynasties, but could not build one for himself.

Really, what more can KL Rahul do?

Rahul has probably made peace with being the kind who slips under the radar often, but becomes the primary target when things go wrong. “Since 2020, I’ve been batting at No. 5. People forget that this is where I’ve been playing. Every time I perform in a series, and there’s a break from ODI cricket, when the next series comes around, there’s a question mark about ‘where will he play in the XI?’,” Rahul said after India’s semi-final win.

“Sometimes, I sit in the dressing room and think, ‘What more can I do?’ Everywhere I’ve been asked to play, I’ve played, and I feel like I’ve performed well, as per what Rohit has told me”.

Rahul’s support acts at the Champions Trophy have been an understated contribution in India’s run to the final. A year and a half ago, at another final, Rahul’s 107-ball 66 was, for many, the reason for India’s underwhelming total. “I was just stuck in between, on whether to attack and play him [Mitchell Starc] and take a chance,” he later recalled in regret.

On Sunday, Rahul might get another shot at soothing the regrets of Ahmedabad. Perhaps, it may feel like vindication. Either way, it won’t wholly change your perception of Rahul. He’s the prince who never became king, but serves from within the people.

What more can he do?

Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.