Rahul Tripathi played only five T20Is for India before opportunities dried up and Sarah Waris wonders why.

Commentating during the Sunrisers Hyderabad-Mumbai Indians game in 2022, where Rahul Tripathi scored 76 in 44 balls, Ian Bishop narrated an incident where the batter had needed only three deliveries to convince the coaches to pick him in the Maharashtra Under-15 squad.

Years later, the same flamboyant ability to strike cleanly and go after the bowling had skipper Hardik Pandya praising the batter’s intent in just his second T20I against Sri Lanka last year, but a poor 2023 IPL has now seen him out of the selector’s eyes.

Tripathi averaged 22.75 in the 2023 IPL at a strike rate of 128 with a high score of 74 not out. It came after two phenomenal seasons in the league, across which he had scored 810 runs in 30 innings and struck at 149.

No other Indian batter made more runs at a better strike rate than him in the two editions. Overall, only Glenn Maxwell and Jos Buttler had scored at a faster pace.

It led to his inclusion in the Indian team where he played two notable knocks, the 16-ball 35 against Sri Lanka that was praised by Pandya, and the 22-ball 44 against New Zealand after walking out in the second over. He aggregated 18 across his other three innings, but it should not be overly criticised considering the high-risk batting approach he adopts.

Since the end of the last IPL, Tripathi has played seven Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy games at a strike rate of 143.

A top-order batter, Tripathi strikes at 142 in the powerplay overs since 2021, the fourth-best amongst all India batters with 200 runs. He picks up pace in the middle overs as well (7-15), striking at 146. He has not batted often at the death, but in the 12 instances when he has, he has scored runs at 146, which makes him a versatile batter for any situation.

What stands as the 32-year-old Tripathi’s strength and allows him to boss the different phases is his all-round game against both spin and pace. He has a strike rate of 146 against the quicks since 2021, the fifth-best amongst all Indians to have faced 400 balls against fast bowlers. Against the slower bowlers, Tripathi strikes at 141, making him a rare batter who can tackle different bowling types with such ease. He is the only Indian in this period with a strike rate above 140 against both quicks and spinners.

Admitting that slowing down is never an option in T20s, Tripathi is a rare batter from the country who seems to have taken on the format as it should be played. He does not have a plethora of personal milestones under his belt, having never crossed 400 runs in any of the seven IPL seasons, but has earned praise for not shying from putting his wicket at risk as he looks to up the ante. It’s not all mindless batting, though.

Up against his former IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders last year, Tripathi displayed his ability to improvise when he took on some of the best players in the game. He started by flicking Umesh Yadav for a four, and then front-foot pressed a slightly fuller delivery by Pat Cummins for a cover drive.

Andre Russell, who had dismissed Kane Williamson with a short-of-a-length delivery earlier, tried a similar tactic against Tripathi, cramping him up for room: Tripathi swayed away to get effortlessly under the ball and slap it over square leg. He put his experience of playing Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine in the nets previously to good use as well, smashing the former for three sixes and a four in four deliveries, before he took on Narine, swatting an off-break delivery to leave Kolkata reeling.

India’s decision to revert to Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for the Afghanistan series could disrupt two years of planning, with neither players having played in the format since their exit in the 2022 T20 World Cup. It realistically made it tough for Tripathi to make the squad as several other candidates who have played recently already vying for a place in the top six. An excellent 2024 IPL is unlikely to get him in the fray either.

India have inducted big hitters in their side since the disaster of the 2022 T20 World Cup, where the lack of stroke-makers affected their performance. Despite the presence of Rohit and Kohli, India will have a relatively fresh batting attack for the upcoming edition, but Tripathi will feel hard done by, having not fared poorly in his limited chances.

Traditionally a top-order batter, he has also batted lower down the order in the IPL and has even been used as a floater based on situations and match-ups. He is also an excellent fielder but at 32, there is also a sense that he might never play for India again. If that happens, an extremely promising T20I career would be cut short due to India’s reluctance to give aggressive players a go in the format earlier, and that is unfortunate.

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