Former India player Sanjay Manjrekar feels KL Rahul will want to prove his worth to the selectors so that he is at the top of his game with his performances in the ODI series against Zimbabwe. Rahul was originally not selected in the Indian squad for the three-match series but later he proved his fitness and also replaced Shikhar Dhawan as the skipper for the tour as well.

During an interaction on the Sports 18 show ‘Sports Over the Top’, Manjrekar said: “The spotlight will be on a couple of important players. One is KL Rahul – to see whether his long injury layoff had any effect on him. He seems to be a certainty for that T20 World Cup squad but he would like to prove to the selectors that he hasn’t lost any of his rhythm of batting.”

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Meanwhile, KL Rahul has not played any competitive cricket since IPL 2022. He underwent a sports hernia surgery in Germany post the tournament and then tested positive for COVID-19 as well when he was about to return to action. And, the veteran has stated that Rahul’s proficiency in batting at any position in ODI cricket will help him a lot.

“Tough one because you have got Ruturaj Gaikwad there, you have got people like Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson who also open in limited-overs cricket. I am guessing that KL Rahul will open the innings. If you look at his ODI record, he has played down the order as well. He is such a good player that he can make quite an impact at No. 1 and No. 4 or No. 5. He is a bit like Suryakumar Yadav.” he shared.

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“Bat him at any position and his impact is not diminished but if you look at his big scores, he has got I think five ODI hundreds, all of them have come opening the innings, so you need somebody to play that kind of an innings in 50-over cricket. So KL Rahul will be best suited to bat at the top of the order,” Sanjay Manjrekar concluded.