Is this a Rahul problem or an Indian top-order batsman problem. For all the criticism Rahul gets, he's scoring at a quicker SR than Rohit and Kohli this season and scored at a quicker rate than them last season. Dhawan has had this problem in the past too of scoring quite slowly. Is the Indian team management putting more emphasis on runs over SR in white-ball cricket and that influencing the approach of the batsman trying to get themselves into the setup. I mean whilst I think some of the criticism of Rahul is warranted he probably has the biggest excuse of the 3 to play an anchor role - Mumbai have QdK, Rohit, Ishan, Suryakumar, Pollard, Pandyas as their top 7 - what is Rohit anchoring?
Kohli has Paddikal, Maxwell and de Villiers all in decent form this season.
Rahul has Gayle and Agarwal in reasonable form and Pooran in no form. You take Rohit out the MI side for a solid Indian opener you aren't that much worse of a side. You take Kohli out he's missed but probably less so then one would first assume - especially if you get Sundar as a powerplay bowler. You take Rahul out of KXIP and their batting looks a whole lot weaker - so whilst I don't necessarily agree with the approach I kind of get it more so than Rohit and Kohli.
Kohli has Paddikal, Maxwell and de Villiers all in decent form this season.
Rahul has Gayle and Agarwal in reasonable form and Pooran in no form. You take Rohit out the MI side for a solid Indian opener you aren't that much worse of a side. You take Kohli out he's missed but probably less so then one would first assume - especially if you get Sundar as a powerplay bowler. You take Rahul out of KXIP and their batting looks a whole lot weaker - so whilst I don't necessarily agree with the approach I kind of get it more so than Rohit and Kohli.