SA vs IND 2023: Why is KL Rahul not playing South Africa vs India T20 Series?

KL Rahul had a stellar ODI World Cup 2023 with the bat. The stylish batter filled the wicketkeeping boots and played in the middle order to add depth to the Indian batting unit.

However, with the T20 World Cup 2024 around the corner, the right-handed batter hasn’t been a part of India’s T20I squad for the South Africa tour. While he has been named the skipper of the Indian ODI squad, his name was not there in the T20I squad.

KL Rahul has not featured in the Indian T20I set-up for a while now. He last played a T20I game in the Indian colours in November 2022 where he featured in the T20I World Cup 2023 semifinal against England.

The 31-year-old was dropped from the squad after an underwhelming performance in the mega event. Rahul attracted a lot of criticism for his timid approach at the top and for not performing in the big-pressure games.

The right-handed southpaw looked to prove his critics wrong during the Indian Premier League 2023 but he got injured during the early stage and ruled out of the whole tournament.

Following the back surgery, KL Rahul returned to the Indian side ahead of the Asia Cup followed by the ODI World Cup 2023. He made a massive impact with the bat in both tournaments but there is no space for him in the T20I set-up currently.

In his absence, India have groomed Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal as the openers, while Ishan Kishan and Jitesh Sharma have performed as the wicketkeeper-batters.

It would be tough for KL Rahul to make a comeback in the shortest format of the game at the moment with the abundance of talent at India’s disposal but one could not certainly rule out a player of the calibre of Rahul completely.

KL Rahul Last 10 T20I innings