An Oddsworth Opinion
What KL Rahul's Test record says about the cost of being versatile
A popular view of KL Rahul, heading into the third ODI against New Zealand, is that his greatest gift is his range. He opens in Test cricket, bats in the middle order for the one-day side, and can walk in with five overs left and still do the job, a finishing role in which his record is held up as very good. It suits the story fans already tell about Rahul as the extension lead of Indian cricket, plugged in wherever there happens to be a socket.
His Test record points somewhere much more specific. Over the last two years Rahul has averaged 45.07 at the top of the order in men's Tests, against 33.51 for all top-seven batters in that time.
Is versatility really KL Rahul's biggest strength?
Take that reasoning at face value and it runs neatly enough: a batter who succeeds everywhere should be sent everywhere, since every new job proves the point again. Several newspapers have answered it with calls for role clarity, which is what tends to follow a player praised mainly for being movable. In Tests his job is simply to open, and that is where the best work of his career has come, with four hundreds in those two years.
Career average 36.6Not out
How good is KL Rahul as a Test opener?
Our ratings place him 15th of 122 men's Test batters, worth about 14 runs a match more than an average player. That ranking rests on unglamorous innings such as 90 off 230 balls against England, the long vigil that rarely makes the highlights and wears an attack down by tea. The real doubt is South Africa last November, when he made 39, 1, 22 and 6 and India lost both Tests, the second by 408 runs.
Where India should bat KL Rahul
The flexibility does serve the one-day side, and the finishing role is Rahul's to keep proving there. As the measure of his worth, though, it sells him short. A Test opener in the world's top fifteen is the harder thing for India to find again, and the selectors should treat that as his job and everything else as a favour he does them. Indian cricket has run its extension lead into every room in the house. In Tests it belongs at the top of the order, plugged in and left alone.