India’s senior opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan hasn’t been in the best form of late and injuries have stalled his progress as well. KL Rahul replaced him in world cup 2019. Shikhar Dhawan is the best choice for opening in ODIs, but is he suitable for T20Is? The issue with Dhawan in recent times is that the player has been consuming many deliveries to put pressure on the others. Also, he isn’t being able to score big in the T20s. That has been a problem, besides him being injury-prone.
Dhawan’s absence from the T20I series against West Indies in December gave KL Rahul the chance to open. And he didn’t disappoint. He needed to show why he is ready to take over as the principal opener in T20Is for India. In the recent T20Is, we saw that the player can strike it well when the team is chasing or batting first. The strike-rate was in excess of 150 in several games showed why he is a real deal in T20Is. Rahul has moved up to sixth in the ICC T20I Rankings for Batsmen and that is enough proof.
Although it’s not confirmed about Rahul replacing Dhawan as a T20 opener, KL seems to be the best choice as of now.
