Ranked as a lower-order batsman, direction is to keep in -- or out (5)
I believe the answer is:
ninth
'ranked as a lower-order batsman' is the definition.
(in cricket, ninth out of eleven ranked batsmen)
'direction is to keep in or out' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'direction' could be 'n' (N is an example) and 'n' is present in the answer.
'in' is within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ninth that I've seen before include "Third of a third" , "Half-way hole?" , "Last of course to go out" , "Beethoven's last?" , "Ordinal number" .)