India vs Australia 2018: 3 things India could have done differently in the T20Is

#2 Shreyas Iyer or Manish Pandey in place of K.L. Rahul

Manish Pandey or Shreyas Iyer - a better option

K.L. Rahul once again flatters to deceive in the series. At Sydney, Rahul struggled to score 14 off 20 balls. At Brisbane, Rahul came in at No 3 and scored 13 off 12 balls. He failed to deliver on the innumerable opportunities that were presented to him. After his century against England in July’2018, Rahul had scores of 6,19,16,26,17,13 & 14.

On top of it, K.L. Rahul sometimes he struggles to throw the ball overarm from the deep. In fact, in the first T20I, Rahul missed an easy run-out of Maxwell which was the turning point of the match. Besides, Rahul becomes a liability to the team if he is slotted to bat anywhere below No 3.

Compared to K.L.Rahul, Manish Pandey is a better fielder and he can create an impact with his fielding abilities alone. He is India’s most preferred and omnipresent 12th man on the field. Either Shreyas Iyer or Manish Pandey could have been given a chance in the third T20 match in place of the out-of-form K.L. Rahul.

Unlike K.L. Rahul, both Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey have the experience of batting down the order in IPL matches and finishing off matches for their respective teams. India could have tried either of them in the Playing XI ahead of Rahul in this series.