KL Rahul Education, Family, Cricket / IPL Milestones And More

It's World Cup 2023! And for cricket lovers, the excitement is off the charts. Everyone is rooting for their favorite players. So we thought, why not give you a glimpse of some crowd favorites? In this article, we bring to you, the ever-trending, KL Rahul.

KL Rahul Biography 

KL Rahul or Kannanur Lokesh Rahul is a right-handed wicket-keeper batsman of the Indian Cricket Team. He was born on 18th April 1992 in Bangalore. Spending most of his childhood in Mangalore, he completed his high school at NITK English Medium School and pre - university at St. Aloysius College.

Marriage: KL Rahul recently got married to Athiya Shetty, daughter of actor Suniel Shetty. The wedding was a private ceremony that took place at Suniel Shetty's Khandala bungalow and was attended by about 100 guests.

Why Rahul is called Rahul? KL Rahul's father, Lokesh, was a fan of Sunil Gavaskar. So when Rahul was born, his father thought of naming his son after Sunil Gavaskar's son, Rohan Gavaskar. However, he mistook Rohan for Rahul. And the rest is history. 

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KL Rahul Education

Rahul started cricket training at the age of 10. At the age of 12, he started playing matches for Bangalore United Cricket Club and the cricket club in Mangalore. He later moved to Bangalore to study at Jain University and seriously pursue his career in cricket.

Rahul credits his success to Jain University. He had once said “I always used to ask the Sports Director about the number of classes I need to attend and he told me to get back onto the cricket field and not to worry about my attendance. It was this sort of support that gave me the freedom to concentrate on my game and succeed.”

Rahul comes from a family of professors: KL Rahul’s father is a professor and former Director at NIT Karnataka, while his mother is a history teacher at Mangalore University. 

Delving deeper into KL Rahul's cricket career

KL Rahul has displayed exceptional performance in the international series as well as in IPL. His stable technique and composure are considered apt to counter the new red cherry or the white Kookabura cricket balls, making him a strong player in the test series as well.

Do you know? Kookaburra is a machine-stitched ball. The two inside rows are hand-stitched, while the two outer rows on each side are machine stitched. The seam of the Kookaburra ball is mostly embedded in the surface and hence has a lesser swing. 

Having a range of skills in his armoury, Rahul has often been applauded for playing proper textbook strokes in the longer format matches, making him a 360-degree player as per experts.  

Rahul's career timeline

KL Rahul is considered to be one of the top-rated opening batsmen in the upcoming generation of Indian cricketers. He represented Team India in the 2010 Under-19 World Cup and subsequently made his debut in first-class cricket later that same year. After a slow start to his career, he had a breakthrough season in 2013-14 where he played a crucial role in Karnataka's victory in the Ranji Trophy, scoring 1033 runs including three centuries, three scores in the nineties, and earning the Man-of-the-Match award in the final. Here is a quick recap of KL Rahul's career: 

• Made his first-class cricket debut for Karnataka in the 2010–11 season
• In 2013, he debuted in the Indian Premier League for Royal Challengers Bangalore
• Made his test debut in the 2014 Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
• Made his One Day International debut against Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club in 2016 (Became the first Indian cricketer to score a century on ODI debut)
• Was named in the T20I squad for the West Indies tour in 2016, made his first T20I cricket century, scoring an unbeaten 110 off just 51 balls. Became the first player to score a T20I century while batting at number four.
• In 2017, Rahul became the fastest batsman to have scored centuries in all three formats, surpassing the record of Ahmed Shehzad who took 76 innings.
• As of March 2023, Rahul has made 14 international centuries and is so far the only Indian player to score a century on his ODI debut. 

Rahul's tattoo love: KL Rahul is known to have over 24 tattoos on his body! One of those that he often flaunts says 'Deshi Basara' which means 'to rise up'.

Indian Premier League

• Rahul made his IPL debut for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as a wicket-keeper batsman during the 2013 competition.
• For the 2014 season, Rahul was bought by the Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 1 crore. He later returned to RCB ahead of the 2016 IPL season.
• Fastest fifty! In the 2018 IPL, Rahul played for Kings XI Punjab (Punjab Kings) where he scored the fastest 50 in 14 balls, breaking the record of Sunil Narine. He reached his maiden IPL century in 2019.
• For the 2020 season, KL Rahul headed Punjab Kings. He went on to win the Orange Cap in IPL 2020 for scoring the most runs (670 runs) and was awarded as the Dream 11 Game changer of the season. He captained the team in 2021 as well.

Do you know? Orange Cap is presented to the leading run scorer in the Indian Premier League (IPL). It was introduced in 2008, in the inaugural season of the IPL.

• For the IPL 2022, Rahul left Punjab Kings and was drafted by Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) as their captain for INR 17 crores making him the joint highest-paid cricketer in the IPL alongside Virat Kohli. In this season, he went on to become the first and the only player to score a century in one's 100th IPL match.

What's Trending? 

KL Rahul climbs up in the latest ICC rankings

After a match-winning performance in the India-Australia clash at ICC World Cup 2023, Rahul has jumped 15 spots and holds 19th place in the batting charts. 

How the tough phase made Rahul stronger!

Rahul smashed a massive 97 (not out) against Australia in the ICC World Cup 2023 opener and led India to victory. Post the match, he opened up about his tough phase when he faced a lot of criticism for his performance despite performing moderately well. He said, "I could not understand why it was coming and from where it was coming, because my performance was not that bad. It was a very painful period for me."

2022 was a difficult year for Rahul. He injured himself during IPL and playing the World Cup was uncertain. But he didn't lose hope. 

 "I got injured during the IPL. When I got to know that I would be out of competitive cricket for 4-5 months and playing the WC was not a certainty, it was difficult for me. I know the pain and process of coming back from it and how difficult it is. But I was positive. I had the motivation to come back before the home World Cup and be a part of the team. I had been preparing wicketkeeping keeping this tournament in mind. I used to tell myself every morning that I have to win this World Cup1."

KL Rahul's journey is nothing less than remarkable. Touted as a stylish yet destructive right-hander batsman, we can't wait to see the performance of this star player in the ICC World Cup 2023. Fingers crossed for the upcoming India-Pakistan match!