Not many batters are blessed with the gift of timing and grace. KL Rahul is among those blessed ones. And through his relentless hard work and unwavering determination, Rahul converted the gift of timing and grace with match-winning performances for Team India across all three formats of the game. The right-handed batter is gearing up to participate in his second T20 World Cup after opening the batting alongside captain Rohit Sharma in last year's (2021) multi-national tournament in the UAE.
KL Rahul Biography
Born on April 18, 1992, KL Rahul, as his parents KN Lokesh and Rajeshwari named him, was destined to play cricket. Rahul's father Lokesh is a fan of legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar and the seeds of Rahul becoming a cricketer were sowed by his father. Rahul was born in Bangalore, grew up in Mangalore and later moved to his birth city at the age of 18.
He picked up cricket at the age of 10 and played for clubs in Bangalore and Mysore. But once he joined Jain University, a young teenager started taking baby steps toward stardom. While studying at Jain University, Rahul was soon making a name for himself, not by excelling in academics but by destroying bowlers on a cricket field. As months and years passed, Rahul slowly started taking big strides in cricket, and as it turned out, the Bangalore lad was destined to be an athlete.
KL Rahul Domestic Cricket Career
KL Rahul had to wait patiently for his chance to play for the country. He toiled hard at the domestic circuit and piled thousands of runs year after year and reached a point where his stunning display of stroke-making couldn't be ignored anymore. He literally stormed down the door of the Indian national side.
KL Rahul Test Cricket Career
After excelling in red-ball domestic cricket, the right-handed batter finally broke through the senior national side in 2014 in the Boxing Day Test against Australia. It was a forgettable debut for the Karnataka batter as he was dismissed for single-digit scores in both innings (3 & 1), but what's important to note is that he didn't bat at his favoured opening position.
In the next match in Sydney when he got the chance to open the innings, Rahul smashed a century and was dismissed for 110 runs. After that, Rahul never looked back. In his Test career so far, he has aggregated 2,547 runs in 43 matches at an average of 35.37. He has 13 half-centuries and seven tons to his name in India whites.
KL Rahul ODI Cricket Career
Two years after making Test debut, Rahul played his maiden ODI against Zimbabwe in 2016. While it took the right-hander two matches to register a century in Tests, in ODIs he smashed a ton in his debut game (100 not out off 115 balls). Since then, Rahul has gone on to 45 ODIs for the country, scoring 1,665 runs in the process with the help of 10 half-centuries and five fifties.
Rahul has had to evolve his game according to the demands of the team. He has successfully batted in the middle-order while also keeping wickets at times to offer a desirable balance to the side.
KL Rahul T20I Cricket Career
Rahul made his T20I debut in the same series against Zimbabwe in 2016. Often criticised for maintaining a low strike rate, the right-hander's numbers in the shortest format of the game his good to say the least. He is among the handful batters in world cricket who have scored at least one century in all three formats of the game.
Rahul has played 64 T20Is for India so far, scoring 2,029 runs in the process with help of 18 half-centuries and two fifties. He has a strike rate of 141.09 and an average of 38.28 in the shortest format of the game for Team India.
Cricket IPL Cricket Career
Rahul's numbers in the Indian Premier League (IPL) are off the charts. In the four of the last five seasons, the Punjab Kings batter has scored more than 600 runs in each campaign while in one season when he missed the mark, he ended up with 593 runs.
Overall in his IPL career, Rahul has scored 3,889 in 109 matches at a strike rate of 136.22 and an average of 48.01. He has smashed 31 half-centuries and four tons in the cash-rich league.