KL Rahul’s form: Is it governed by ‘Law of Diminishing Returns’ on the big stage?
KL Rahul’s form: Is it governed by ‘Law of Diminishing Returns’ on the big stage? KL Rahul's T20I average is dropped from 50.95 to 28.95 in the last two years and strike rate from 146.64 to 127.44.
Kannaur Lokesh Rahul, the only other India batter in T20I history apart from Rohit Sharma to score more than one century, is seeing questions being raised over his lack of form. One doesn’t often see fingers being raised on a batter who averages 37.87 in 65 innings and who strikes at 138.75, but such is the state of Indian cricket and the healthy competition for the opener spot. While the rest of India’s top four batters have now scored at least 40+ runs in three innings cumulatively, Rahul has been the only let down in India’s World Cup campaign so far with 22 runs in three innings.
Is Rahul’s poor show a sudden downfall? Or have the selectors been ignoring the numbers for too long?
KL Rahul's performance has been disappointing, to say the least, in the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022, with 22 runs in three innings off 34 deliveries at a paltry strike rate of 64.70. Though three games should not be enough to raise concerns about KL's form, it is about the entire 2021 and 2022 seasons combined. Rahul used to average about 50.95 between 2016 and 2020, when he accumulated a mammoth 1542 runs effortlessly at a staggering average of 50.95 and scored both his T20I centuries in the said period. The downfall of KL started in 2021. And the numbers for Rahul have declined faster than Europe’s GDP.
In the last two years, Rahul has struggled for runs in all three formats, not just T20Is. And as they say, the numbers don’t lie either. KL Rahul has only scored 608 runs in 23 innings at a below par average of 28.95 in the last two years.