Last season, KL Rahul played most of his games for DC in the middle order because that position became their weakest point. The veteran player will begin his new position for the upcoming season.

The Delhi Capitals 2025 season used Jake Fraser-McGurk and Faf du Plessis as their primary opening pair, but both players failed to deliver successful performances. The franchise released both players ahead of IPL 2026, and the management has now decided to promote KL Rahul to the top.

TOI journalist Sahil Malhotra reported that the 33-year-old star will assume his new responsibilities during the upcoming season. KL Rahul stands out as the team’s best choice because they require a reliable top-order batsman.

KL Rahul has spent most of his IPL career as an opening batsman because this role brought him the most success. The Capitals management decided to use him as a lower-order batsman during IPL 2025. The decision did not change his performance metrics but it failed to show his full batting potential.

In 2025, he played 11 games as a middle-order batsman and DC only promoted him to opening role during his last three matches. He immediately delivered, scoring a century against the Gujarat Titans.

DC has now adopted this strategy as their permanent solution because they learned from their previous errors, and they intend to use KL Rahul as their permanent opener. The Karnataka batter has played 103 innings as an opener in the IPL and has delivered impressive numbers at the top. He has scored 4,418 runs, with an average of 49 and a strike rate of 138.15.

Out of his total 5,222 IPL runs, 4,418 have come as an opener. This shows that DC made a mistake during the previous season which they fixed by moving their top batsman to the opening position.

Delhi Capitals now have multiple possibilities to pair with KL Rahul as an opener for IPL 2026 which differs from their previous season. The two main contenders are England’s Ben Duckett and Sri Lanka’s Pathum Nissanka. Duckett has not played competitive cricket recently, so Nissanka might have a slight edge to open alongside Rahul.

Prithvi Shaw currently waits for his opportunity while Abishek Porel remains a potential top-order batsman. The team possesses four additional players who can open the innings beside KL Rahul which creates a beneficial selection challenge for the franchise before the upcoming season.