Indian Cricket Team: Four players who deserve more opportunities

#3 - KL Rahul

KL Rahul, who is regarded by many critics as the best-all format batsman in India after Virat Kohli, has been jerked around a lot - by the selectors and management alike. Two years after it seemed like he had cemented his spot in the side across formats in 2016, he finds himself benched in the Test team; dropped from the ODI team; and only occasionally playing in the T20 team.

The situation that he is in right now is criminal for a player of his talent and ability. His test match form, while not fantastic, was good in 2017. He scored seven half-centuries on the trot, and while he could not convert any of them into centuries, he still performed one part of his job extremely well by providing the Indian team with a good start on every single one of those situations.

Despite this, he was dropped and Shikhar Dhawan came into the team in his place. With India playing numerous tests overseas in this season, and with Dhawan known to be susceptible in those situations, Rahul is sure to get at least a few opportunities to re-stake his claim for a spot in the test side, and he will be hoping he can take them.

With regard to his place in the ODI and T20 sides, the situation is slightly more complicated, as India have one of their most prolific opening pairs in the limited overs formats right. As good as Rahul may have performed in the IPL, the team management has shown a clear proclivity on this matter: if Rahul is to make a spot in the limited overs side, in the long term, it needs to be in the middle order.

Whether it is justified or not is debatable, but the fact of the matter remains that for Rahul to be in the limited overs side, he needs to start performing in the middle-order.