Kevin Pietersen, the coach of the Delhi Capitals (DC) in New Delhi, thinks that KL Rahul’s improved batting strategy for the team in the 2025 Indian Premier League could result in the wicketkeeper-batter making a comeback in India’s T20I lineup.

Rahul was criticized for playing an antiquated style of Twenty20 cricket when he played his last Twenty20 International match for India in the 2022 Men’s T20 World Cup, scoring only 128 runs in six innings with a strike rate of 120.75. However, Rahul has changed his T20 strategy after joining DC in the IPL 2025. His new approach is based on playing more freely and aggressively, as seen by his 364 runs in eight games at an average of 60.67 and a strike-rate of 146.18.

“You guys have a lot of opening hitters, in my opinion. After DC lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by six wickets, Pietersen stated at the post-match press conference, “You have Surya, who bats at the top, and all of these guys, but the way that KL Rahul is playing cricket now, he would be my first choice to bat at four and keep wicket for India.”

Rahul struggled to get 41 off 39 balls against RCB on Sunday. This was caused by a combination of batting on a surface that gave spinners Suyash Sharma and Krunal Pandya grip, which allowed them to assault stumps continuously. However, Pietersen praised Rahul for indicating that he wanted to alter his strategy in T20 cricket.

Since late to late last year, KL has been playing in a really excellent way. We saw how he completed a few matches for India and almost won the Champions Trophy in Dubai.

When you grow up as a kid like he did and are taught defense, elbow up, and playing in the V, you suddenly have to change it and become a different kind of player for a different format that is constantly changing. That’s why I’ve had a lot of really great conversations with him about batting—a lot of deep and meaningful conversations.

It’s very, really challenging. As a result, his acceptance of the fact that he needed to change and his subsequent transformation are quite commendable. He exudes positivity in all aspects of his training, practice, and coaching, as well as in his thoughts and speech about the game. KL is that,” he continued.

Pietersen acknowledged that batting first was difficult because of the pitch’s dryness and believed that pursuing was the best course of action after DC scored 162/8, the lowest first innings total here since the 2024 Indian Premier League. However, when RCB captain Rajat Patidar decided to bowl first, DC lost control of that choice. It’s interesting to note that DC captain Axar Patel had no concerns about batting first at the moment.

“The toss was lost by us. If we had won the toss, I believe we would have pursued as well. Getting the throw right was crucial. Batting, in my opinion, became a little bit simpler in the latter stages. Because the surface was dry and the dew hadn’t set yet, the first innings was a little more difficult for us, particularly in the middle overs.

According to statistics, the team batting first has won the game in the seven previous games played here, so that’s the first chase win. However, there wasn’t any dew when we finished training last night (Saturday), so I’m not sure if that would have had a significant impact on what we did.

However, we were going to chase this evening, and I believe that the circumstances and the toss just did not work in our favor. Making shots was very difficult on that wicket, in my opinion. “You have to trust that the wicket is not as easy to bat on at that particular stage when someone like KL Rahul is struggling to get a boundary,” he said.

Before facing the unpredictable Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Tuesday, DC will have only one day off to recuperate, and Pietersen believes the team hasn’t yet performed flawlessly in every way. Once again, our bowling lineup is excellent. We have a very extensive hitting lineup, and I believe that it all depends on the opponent.

“If you look at the players and squad that Bangalore has, this evening’s matchup is definitely a better wicket to play them against. On the other hand, I’m wishing that we didn’t get the wicket against KKR on Tuesday. The benefit of playing at home, in my opinion, is that things may change.

As a team, we haven’t yet reached our peak performance. Therefore, I don’t believe we should be talking about the wicket. We haven’t really played the whole game, so I believe it’s more. Knowing that we haven’t truly reached our straps in every category, it’s a good thing that we are sitting where we are with 12 points.

Because of our past victories, the folks here thought we could win even if Bengaluru was almost on the other side. We haven’t yet played our ideal match, but I think it will happen soon.

Pietersen spent his post-playing years in the commentary box before taking on a coaching job for the first time in the 2025 Indian Premier League.

“I don’t believe many of these guys will play cricket in Test matches. So you’re probably looking at it as a view, and I do often as well, I look at it and I just think like this is just crazy, some of the shots that you see and how quickly these guys play the shots, it looks like utter madness, but that’s the form of the game.

“You can’t play that way on wickets like the one we played this evening; you have to be methodical and find rhythm. Virat Kohli did that tonight, and KL did as well, and I believe that’s where you see the real batter—the batter who can come out there and sort of monitor the situation.”

“It looks effortless because they’ve built a technique for 20 years, 30 years, whereas you give the absolute belters and that’s when the next generation can come in and do all sorts of things. So is it good for T20 cricket to have the occasional wicket like this? I don’t think it’s a bad thing.

“Is it good to see the bowlers just bowling and just being served up into the stands every single ball, like what happened a bit last year, and how it started this year? I don’t think every night people want to see that.

“I mean, I don’t really want to see it every night, I don’t know, you guys are obviously cricket lovers, the question is to you, do you want to see that every night, or do sometimes you just want to see something like this where it’s like, it can be real tight,” he said.