Have we effed ourselves by not going with KL at the top?

[R!TTER]

Considering the form he was in, it was obvious he should've opened at some point in the ODI series but I guess Brat knows better 

[rkt.india]

Rahul is fine at 5. You also needed to find some new owners in case to replace Rohit dhawan.

[rkt.india]

I would have instead opened with Gill who has far higher ceiling and not Mayank in ODIs.

[Gollum]

Difficult when he is keeping I guess. 

[vvvslaxman]

Since Mayank sucked in A games they wanted him to give more practice. But he has flunked here as well.  Mode of dismissals are identical to test match dismissals. 

[vvvslaxman]

Rahul not opening in a way is good. He probably could have thrown it away. No he has the responsibility which is good.

[R!TTER]

12 minutes ago, rkt.india said:

Rahul is fine at 5. You also needed to find some new owners in case to replace Rohit dhawan.

I'm pretty sure Brat will open with just these 2 if they are fit for the WC in 2023, there's no way he's letting go of the brothers from his previous life that easily!

[Lannister]

In ODIs, he looks more in control at 5 and we don't have anyone of his level to bat in the middle order.

 

But he should open in T20s. 

[New guy]

We tried the same experiment with dravid forcing him to keep too. He hated it. He was great initially but soon almost lost his way in ODIs. I fear same will happen to rahul. Part time keepers never work and rahul prefers opening 

[rkt.india]

29 minutes ago, New guy said:

We tried the same experiment with dravid forcing him to keep too. He hated it. He was great initially but soon almost lost his way in ODIs. I fear same will happen to rahul. Part time keepers never work and rahul prefers opening 

But Rahul is a better and more natural wk, not strictly a part-timer like dravid. He has kept at junior level.  He keeps even for Karnataka in shorter formats. He wouldn't have done that if he had hated it. Also, even if he does not keep, he should still be batting at 5. 

[Ankit_sharma03]

No ill keep him in middle he is making middle order look strong n powerful. Like abdv or yuvi he has that extra gear which most of our middle order option lacks. Just that i still feel i wanna move him up to 4 coz i think in terms of batsmanship he is better then iyer. 

[Vijy]

keep him in MO (middle order), that's my opinion. we have plenty of backups for rohit-dhawan such as shaw and gill in opening.

[Pandya_Power]

It's fine to lose a few meaningless ODI series. I feel we understood a lot more about players other than the usual 3 in this series. 

 

Clinically polishing off opponents in these ODIs leaves us with the same unanswered questions. The MO is looking a lot more solid with Iyer, KL, Manish and Jadeja. The bowling has taken a few backward strides. But I'm hoping they will come back strong in the Tests.

[TNAmarkFromIndia]

23 hours ago, R!TTER said:

Considering the form he was in, it was obvious he should've opened at some point in the ODI series but I guess Brat knows better 

So he bats at 5 in the previous series, he does well, and you want them to change his position again? 

 

You need to look at KL Rahul the T20 batsman and KL Rahul the ODI batsman separately. In T20Is, he looks to score quickly at the top of the order. In ODIs, he takes his time at the top of the order and looks to play the long innings to lay the platform for the middle order. Basically, he becomes Rohit Sharma, and we don't want 2 Rohit Sharmas opening the innings for us in ODIs. 

 

He's doing perfectly fine at 5 and that's where he should continue to bat.

[RajBan]

Rahul is fine at 5, no need to change it. Can be played at 4 as well depending on match circumstances.

[RajBan]

He should definitely open in T20 and if Dhawan is selected instead, we should think of boycotting the team where personal interest takes precedence over merit.

[retired_hurt]

I like Rahul in the middle order. He was being too cautious while opening the batting. With the amount of talent he has, batting in death overs, and having the license to go for kill, he can cut loose without any pressure. Not hyperbole, he would soon play the roll of AB Devilliers for us.

[express bowling]

Rahul should bat at No.5 or No.4 in ODIs.

 

He gives us the much needed batting depth as well as finishing skills.

 

Our problem in ODIs In the last 4 years or so, have been the lack of good batsmen at 4 to 6.

 

Rahul solves this issue, atleast regarding one of the positions.

 

He should open in T20Is.

[ShoonyaSifar]

Rahul is NOT a middle order batsman. Credit to him for having finally adjusted to number 5 with the additional burden of being a keeper, but that is not his natural position. In the form he is in, he could easily have played 150-170 type of proper match winning innings. We need his aggression at the top of the order, he's fully capable of multiple 65-70 ball 100s, which can be a potential game changer for our ODI strategy.

[adi B]

Has Raul fit in the #5 slot ? I hope so .

I'd actually still prefer him at #4 ,iyer #5 then pant #6 ,pandya #7 ,this would be the perfect line up .

Now coming to the openers ,we need to continuously give chances to shaw and gill in the bilaterals, we need replacements for rohit and dhawan in the long run