3 Players who can replace KL Rahul in India's T20I team

With the advent of the T20I season, with the Asia Cup 2022 underway in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the all-important T20 World Cup set to take place in October-November in Australia, all the talks in the cricketing fraternity and teams would be in the grand scheme of things pertaining to T20 cricket.

All the teams that have secured a berth in the World Cup would be already finding their best playing XI for the mega event. As for India is concerned, they would be more mindful of the absence of their star pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel, who are out due to injuries. And the batting department looks, more or less, settled for the Men in Blue.

However, since the comeback of the Indian vice-captain, KL Rahul, in the Zimbabwe tour into the team, the going has not been easy for KL Rahul. And his recent struggling knock of 36 off 39 against Hong Kong in the Asia Cup has been a matter of concern for the Indian top-order. And Also, given the fact that talented younger players have been waiting in the ranks, is it time for the opener to step out?

Here we bring you three players who can replace KL Rahul in India's T20I team:

1. Ishan Kishan 

Ishan Kishan can be that opening batter who could play fearlessly and take the side off to a flyer in the powerplay. The pairing of Kishan and Rohit Sharma also provides the left-hand-right-hand combination up top, something that has been lacking with KL Rahul.

Kishan has played 14 T20Is this year, scoring 430 runs at an average of 30.71 and a strike rate of 130.30. He also had a good Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 with a struggling Mumbai Indians (MI) side, scoring 418 runs at an average of 32.15.

Kishan also has a natural flair for timing the ball and also playing the big shots, against the run of play and gathering momentum in his side’s favour. He can take the role of wicketkeeper if needed, or in addition to resolving India’s top-order woes.