Know Your Cricketer: KL Rahul; An Elegant Batsman

 

Kannanur Lokesh Rahul was born on 18th April 1992 to KN Lokesh and Rajeshwari in Bangalore. KL Rahul is Wicketkeeper and Right-Hand Batsman. He plays as opener in the Tests and T20 and plays in middle order in the ODI’s.
 

Domestic Career
Rahul was a part of India's squad in the 2010 Under-19 World Cup and made his first-class debut later that year. He enjoyed a breakthrough 2013-14 season, laying the foundation for Karnataka's Ranji Trophy victory with 1033 runs, which included three centuries, three nineties, and a Man-of-the-Match performance in the final. He became Karnataka’s first triple-centurion scoring 337 runs.





International Career
In 2014 Rahul made his Test debut by replacing Rohit Sharma in Boxing Day Test at Melbourne. In the next Test at Sydney, he scored his maiden century while opening the innings by scoring 110 runs. In 2016 he made his ODI debut where he scored unbeaten century against Zimbabwe hence became the first Indian Batsman to score a century on ODI debut. He was adjudged man of the series at that time. Later in the same year he made his T20I debut, he again became the first cricketer to score a T20I century while batting at number 4.

In 2019 Cricket World Cup, Rahul played at the opening position and scored 361 runs including 2 fifties, 1 century in the Tournament and became India’s third highest run-scorer.

Indian Premier League (IPL)
In his debut year 2013 to the IPL he was bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). In 2014 grabbed the attention at the IPL Auction and bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad for the IPL Season 2014. In 2016 he again moved to Royal Challengers Bangalore. In 2022 he was the Captain of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), under his captaincy the Team finished at 3rd position.