After becoming a full-time No. 5 in ODI cricket, KL Rahul had expanded his range as a middle-order batter - since 2020, nobody has a higher average than his 61.52 in that position (for a minimum of 20 innings). Not even Heinrich Klaasen, whose average is about seven points lower than Rahul's. But in the lead-up to the Champions Trophy, India were keen to break up the sequence of right-handers and hence decided to promote Axar Patel to No. 5. As a result, Rahul dropped down to No. 6, but he's adapted to that position, too, and has been "working on boundary-hitting a lot more".
"Yeah, I do [enjoy batting at the top] - I mean, I won't lie," Rahul told Star Sports after taking India home in the semi-final. "It's after opening the batting in Australia in Test matches [in the last series] and having to face that attack in Australia. And, you know, red-ball [cricket] is much harder. I opened the batting there and then to come here and bat low seems a bit different, but this is how I've played white-ball cricket in the last four-five years.
"I'm quite used to going up and down the order, so I'm just happy getting a chance to play in the middle and whatever role is given, I think it's really helped me understand my game a lot more and I've had to work on boundary-hitting a lot more in the last year or so, because the last ODI we played in Sri Lanka I batted at No. 6, so I knew that's where I'll be batting and [we] needed a left-hander in the top order."
Before the Champions Trophy, there was a toss-up between Rahul and Rishabh Pant for the keeper-batter's spot, but Rahul, the incumbent, eventually got the nod. On Tuesday, Rahul went out to bat at the fall of Axar's wicket, with India needing 86 in 15 overs with six wickets in hand on a tricky Dubai surface. When Virat Kohli holed out for 84, it appeared like Australia had an opening, but Rahul slammed the doors on them with an unbeaten 42 off 34 balls, including two fours and two sixes. After putting India in the final, Rahul was asked how he dealt with the uncertainty around his role.
"It's since I think 2020 that I've batted at No. 5 and a lot of times people forget that that's where I've been batting," Rahul said. "And every time I perform in a series and then there's a break from ODI series, ODI cricket, and then we come back after four or five months there's a question mark again about 'oh well, will he play in the XI, where does he fit' and sometimes I'm sitting there thinking what more can I do. Everywhere that I've been asked to play I've played, and I feel like I have performed my role, whatever's been told to me by Rohit [Sharma]…
"And whatever he's told me I feel like I've done that to the best of my ability. And I know that Rohit feels the same and he's always supported me and backed me with that. So there's that confidence going into game that the captain has my back."
Though Dubai had rolled out a fresh pitch for the semi-final, it was still slow and conducive to spin. It was one of those pitches where it was difficult to rotate strike, so Rahul felt that it was worth taking a risk every over, especially when Kohli was in supreme control at the other end. Rahul took Tanveer Sangha, Ben Dwarshuis and Adam Zampa for a brace of fours and a six in quick succession before Kohli was caught at long-on. Hardik Pandya did his job but also holed out later, and Rahul got the job done with Ravindra Jadeja.
"When I walked in and when I played ten-12 balls, I told him that you're the batter that needs to go on and be there till the end, and let me try and hit or let me try and take one chance an over," Rahul said of his chat with Kohli. "Because we only needed 6 runs an over. But 6 runs an over on that wicket seemed like 8-8.5. So, you had to take one chance an over, one boundary or one six.
"So, I told him that I will do that and why don't you just rotate the strike and be there because you're the set batter and it might be harder [for me]. If you get out another batter comes, it becomes a lot harder. But yeah, he felt like it was in his range to hit and yeah, he didn't time it well."