KL Rahul walked in at 47/4 in Wellington on Saturday, with Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma gone and the chase slipping away. He did not try to rescue it with one big over. He put away the loose deliveries when they came, watched Shreyas Iyer, Naman Dhir and Anshul Kamboj depart, and was unbeaten on 26 off 38 balls when rain stopped play. India had won by four runs on DLS.
While the spotlight is on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, Rahul has quietly held the fort in India’s middle order, batting between numbers four and seven. It was not a headline innings. He does not have a 360-degree game or the shots that make highlight reels. But he brings something India need just as much: the ability to walk in when the innings is in trouble, handle the pressure, rebuild and make up for lost time.
That composure when wickets fall has long been a feature of his batting. The proof goes back years. Three years ago, with India reduced to 2/3 in their ODI World Cup opener against Australia in Chennai, Rahul helped see off the difficult phase, rotated the strike and built a 165-run partnership with Kohli. As the pressure eased, he began finding the boundaries more regularly, finishing unbeaten on 97 and guiding India to a six-wicket win.
KL Rahul of India plays a shot during the 2nd ODI match between New Zealand and India at the Hnry Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand on November 7, 2026. (CREIMAS)
Earlier that year, in another chase against Australia in Mumbai, India were 16/3 while chasing 189 before slipping to 39/4. Rahul first steadied the innings with Hardik Pandya and then joined Ravindra Jadeja after Pandya’s dismissal. The pair began cautiously before opening up. Rahul remained unbeaten on 75 off 91 balls, guiding India to a five-wicket win.
It is not only about chases. He showed it while batting first against New Zealand at Mount Maunganui in 2020. India were 62/3 when Rahul joined Iyer, and the pair added 100 runs for the fourth wicket. After Iyer’s dismissal, Rahul shared another 107-run stand with Manish Pandey and eventually finished with 112, helping India recover and post 296.
There is a method in it. He does not try to hit his way out of trouble. Instead, he looks to arrest the slide, build a partnership and bring the innings back on track before increasing the scoring rate. His first instinct is to give the innings stability, but there is an understanding that every situation calls for a different approach. In Wellington, staying at the crease was the priority. In the other three innings, once India had stability, he shifted gears.
His ability to slot into different roles is another strength. He has opened in red-ball cricket and batted at numbers five and six in ODIs, and batting coach Sitanshu Kotak pointed to that flexibility before the third ODI in Hamilton.
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“I think KL Rahul’s biggest advantage is, I have said this before also, he can open in red-ball, he can play in the middle-order in the ODIs, and whenever required he goes at No. 5. He is so good at No. 6 also. He plays according to the needs of the team,” Kotak said on Monday.
“And since I have joined, I think, I can’t remember many matches where he’s batted and not contributed. He has played some unbelievable innings and, under pressure, he never looks under pressure. I have never seen KL Rahul under pressure. You always see him very stable. It is brilliant to have someone like him who has that experience and temperament,” he added.
Kotak also pointed to his range: “Someone who can rotate, who can hit boundaries when required. He can easily hit a few sixes.”
The numbers back him. Across 77 matches, batting between four and seven, he has 2578 runs at an average of 57.28, with six hundreds and 14 fifties. Since January 2023, he has scored 1461 runs in 39 innings at numbers five and six, averaging 63.52 at a strike rate of 98.98 with three hundreds and six fifties. Since the start of 2025, he has amassed 719 runs in 21 innings at an average of 65.36 and a strike rate of 115.96, with two hundreds and two fifties.
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KL Rahul of India during the 2nd ODI match between New Zealand and India at the Hnry Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand on November 7, 2026. (CREIMAS)
While Rohit and Kohli continue to hog the attention, Rahul has emerged as India’s man for a crisis. He may not always grab the headlines, but on the helpful surfaces at the ODI World Cup in South Africa next year, his ability to absorb pressure, rebuild an innings and keep the scoreboard moving could prove invaluable.
In Wellington, he was still there when the rain came.
(With stats inputs from Lalith Kalidas)
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Since January 2023, Rahul has scored 1461 runs at an average of 63.52 in 39 innings at numbers five and six in ODIs.
