Despite his remarkable form since last year, former South African fast and Sunrisers Hyderabad bowling coach Dale Steyn expressed astonishment that Rahul Tripathi has yet to play for India in T20 internationals. Tripathi was used as a middle-overs enforcer for the Kolkata Knight Riders last season, and he was instrumental in the team reaching the final. He was later purchased for 8.5 crores by SRH in the IPL 2022 mega-auction and has played a key role in the team’s five victories thus far.
Last season, he batted with a strike rate of 140, and this year, he’s upped the ante even more, scoring 228 runs in eight innings for SRH at a strike rate of 174 and an average of 45. Tripathi’s strike rate in middle-overs this season is 180, which is second only to Gaikwad’s 181 for any batter with at least 100 runs in this phase. Gaikwad, however, has had the advantage of being set as the opener, whereas Tripathi has come in at number 3 and batted aggressively from the start of his innings.
Following his IPL 2022 heroics, Steyn believes Tripathi should now push his way into the Indian T20I selection. “I feel Rahul has a good chance of joining India’s T20I selection. The IPL is a platform that permits players to perform so well that players from that pool are selected for the Indian national squad. “It’s strange that he hasn’t gotten a chance in the Indian squad yet,” Steyn told Sportskeeda.
While the Indian squad has a lot of anchor hitters, pundits believe that Tripathi can offer the momentum that the team requires. However, as Dale Steyn pointed out, Virat Kohli now holds the number one spot, making it very hard for Tripathi to replace him.
“Given that the position he bats at (no. 3) is occupied by Virat Kohli in the Indian team, it’s going to be difficult to get that spot. But the way he’s currently playing and the way he has played in the past, he has certainly shown maturity. He’s putting his hand up and bashing the door down as hard as he can,” the SRH bowling coach added.
