KL Rahul slammed 129*, his highest ODI score in a losing cause.
India struggled a bit, but thanks to Rohit Sharma’s 92 and KL Rahul’s stupendous 129*, they put 351/7 in 50 overs. In response, Windies captain Shai Hope made 162*, and Amir Jangoo’s 67 helped them win the game by 5 wickets.
KL Rahul scored his highest score in ODI cricket, hitting 10 fours and 6 sixes, helping India put a very good score on the board. He has been in excellent form with the bat since taking over the lead wicketkeeper-batter role in ODIs in 2023, after Rishabh Pant’s near-fatal accident.
Rahul, since then, has not vacated that role and has a better record as a designated keeper. He has 2025 runs in 58 ODIs as keeper, with 4 centuries and 12 fifties and an average of 59.55, compared to 1516 runs in 43 ODIs, where he didn’t keep wickets for India and averaged 43.31.
“Happy to have scored 129 runs but disappointed that we couldn't clean sweep the series. Had we done that, then the happiness level would have been at its peak. Nonetheless, I wanted to spend more time with the bat out there in the middle, and the last time I really got to bat for a long duration in ODI cricket in the middle order was in early January this year against New Zealand. Since then, I haven't really got a lot of time to play a long innings,” Rahul told JioStar after the match.
Rahul had faced only 37 balls in ODIs across seven matches, since his unbeaten 112 against New Zealand earlier this year in Rajkot. He didn’t bat in the first two ODIs as well against West Indies, but when he got a chance to show his might in the middle, Rahul made sure to make it count.
"And next year is a big one, with the World Cup starting in October, so it's important for me to get valuable batting time because off the field I'm trying a few things and I want to test that in the game. Only then will you know whether the work that you're putting in behind the scenes is working or not, or what I need to do differently. So yeah, it was important for me to get some batting time, so I'm happy about that," Rahul added.
The innings gave Rahul a chance to refine a challenging part of his present role. Having played mostly at the top of the order, the batter has adjusted to conditions that grow tougher for middle-order players as an ODI innings unfolds. He highlighted the older ball’s behavior and the trouble it poses for batters trying to attack in the closing overs.
"It's very different, but I've been doing this role for the last 6-7 years. In the last year and a half, since the ball-change rule has come into effect, it's been very different. It's not been easy to get 80-90 runs in the last 10 overs. The ball has been reversing, and even in this game, once the ball got old and soft and started to reverse, as a batter you don't feel confident enough to take on the long-on and deep mid-wicket fielders if it's a big boundary on that side.
"I've always batted at the top of the order, and I like the hard ball coming onto me because I can use the pace. So that's something I've been working on, trying to play with softer, older balls and being able to hit sixes with them. That's something I've worked on. I constantly try to get better within my own game, understand my role, and understand what a number five and number six batter has to do to consistently put up performances for the team,
Although the 2027 World Cup is more than a year away, Rahul noted that the current series are already offering the match scenarios required to evaluate India’s strategies and personnel.
"All these series on the road to the World Cup are a good opportunity to get some game time in the middle. We don't want to go too far away from the plan but also experiment a little bit as a batting unit. The goal so far has been about whether we can score 330-340 while batting first, but we're seeing that 340s and 350s get chased down very easily in one-day cricket. So how can batters, once set, keep pressing on and get 370s and 380s, or push for 400 on a given day?
"The minute we as middle-order batters go in, the aim is to ensure that we do not take too much time to get going, start rotating the strike and keep finding a boundary every six or seven balls. Also, we were missing key players like Bumrah and Axar, so it gave us a chance to try other players. The coach and captain have been very clear on the personnel they want to bring in. They want to give a longer rope to certain players whom we feel might be important for the World Cup," he said.
Rahul is the India vice-captain in Tests and has captained India in ODIs as well previously. He is a vital cog in India’s combination going into the World Cup 2027, someone who can help the team depend on either accelerating in the death or playing a knock like he did in the third ODI and save the team from a difficult start.
(IANS inputs)