KL

Rahul

KL Rahul Biography and Career 

Kannaur Lokesh Rahul or KL Rahul is an Indian cricketer who plays for Karnataka in domestic cricket and has played for several popular teams such as Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Punjab Kings and Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL. He is best known for being a technically solid batsman who has the ability to shift gears at will. Rahul is also an efficient wicketkeeper and has played a key role behind stumps for his country, state and IPL franchise.

Rahul was born in Bengaluru, Karnataka in 1992. Both his parents were professors at different universities in Mangalore, and he grew up in Mangalore. Rahul’s father was a huge fan of former Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar and wanted to name his son after Gavaskar’s son, but mistook Rohan Gavaskar’s name for Rahul.

Right from a young age, Rahul showed his love for the game. He started training at the age of 10 for Bangalore United Cricket Club (BUCC) and immediately looked the part. Rahul made his Karnataka debut at the age of 18, the same year he was also selected to play for the Under-19 India team at the World Cup. 

Rahul churned out runs aplenty in the domestic circuit and soon found himself in the squad for India’s tour to Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2014. He made his debut that year in the Boxing Day Test. He had an uneventful debut, but scored a stellar century in the next Test in Sydney, marking his presence on the international circuit. 

After that series, Rahul returned home and played in the Ranji Trophy where he became the first triple-centurion for Karnataka, scoring 337 against Uttar Pradesh. 

In the last few years, Rahul has become a mainstay in India’s white-ball squads, while he has also been a regular in the red-ball sides, though not always. Rahul is one of the few Indian players to have multiple centuries in all three formats of the game. 

Rahul was part of the Indian side that made it to the final of the 2023 ODI World Cup. He was as effective in the front of the wicket as behind it. Rahul finished the World Cup with the second-most dismissals (16 catches and one stumping) and was also astute with the DRS decisions. With the bat, Rahul scored 452 runs in 11 innings, with two fifties and a century and was the fourth-highest run-scorer for India.

Rahul has been a pretty popular IPL player since his younger days. He was picked by his home franchise of Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2013 before making a move to Sunrisers Hyderabad for whom he was picked for Rs 1 crore. Rahul returned to RCB ahead of the 2016 season and had a pretty good year where he finished with 397 runs in 14 matches and was the third-highest run-getter for his franchise.

Rahul missed IPL 2017 due to a shoulder injury and then was picked for a mammoth Rs 11 crore by Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in the IPL 2018 auction. In the franchise’s first match of the season, Rahul smashed the then-fastest fifty in the history of IPL, off just 14 balls. He finished IPL 2018 as Punjab’s highest run scorer and third-highest overall. 

In 2019, Rahul was made captain of Punjab and he finished that season as the second-highest run-getter with 593 runs. Then in IPL 2020, Rahul won the orange cap award for the most runs in the season: 670 runs in 14 matches at an average of 55.83.

Rahul was picked by the new franchise Lucknow Super Giants ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction for Rs 17 crore and named captain. He continued his stellar run taking the team into the playoffs in the first two seasons.  

In IPL 2024, LSG failed to make it to the playoffs and Rahul was publicly criticised by the team owner in a video that went viral. Rahul was released by the franchise ahead of the 2025 season and picked by Delhi Capitals for Rs 14 crore in the auction.

Rahul has been Mr. consistent in the IPL with more than 590 runs in each season from 2018 to 2022. 

Beyond Cricket

Rahul married his long time girlfriend, actress Athiya Shetty in January 2023. The couple announced their first pregnancy in November 2024. Rahul has a lot of fan following all across and he is also quite active on social media. He has a massive 21.3 million followers on his Instagram handle which goes by kl rahul and close to 9 million followers on X (formerly Twitter).

Rahul has been an extremely marketable athlete. He has the height and the physique to pull off any brand and has always had a number of deals coming his way. He endorses several very popular brands such as Puma, Cure.fit, RBI, NUMI, Police, Metaman, Boldfit and Tata Nexon among others. 

Rahul received the Eklavya Award from the Karnataka government in November 2020.

While Rahul mostly remains sedate on the field, he has had his fair share of controversies. In 2019, Rahul along with Hardik Pandya was handed a suspension by the BCCI following a few misogynistic comments by the duo on a talk show. They were both sent home ahead of an ODI series against Australia. The suspension was later lifted and Rahul was handed the India vice-captaincy. In July 2016, Rahul posted a photo with a beer in hand during India’s tour of the West Indies, which he had to take down as it was not liked by a few BCCI officials.

KL Rahul Records 

KL Rahul Domestic Records

• First batsman for Karnataka to score a triple-century in the Ranji Trophy. He scored 337 against Uttar Pradesh in 2015

KL Rahul Test Records

• Scored a century in just his second Test against Australia in Sydney
• In 2017, Rahul became the first Indian and seventh cricketer overall to score seven consecutive Test fifties

KL Rahul T20I Records

• The first player to score a T20I century while batting at No. 4 or lower 
• Rahul is the first Indian batsman to be dismissed hit-wicket in T20Is

KL Rahul ODI Records

• Is the first Indian cricketer to score a century on ODI debut, getting there against Zimbabwe in 2016

KL Rahul International Records

• Rahul is the fastest batsman in the world to complete a century in all three formats of the game, taking just 20 innings
• In 2022, Rahul became only the second Indian cricketer to lead India before making 50 appearances in ODIs

KL Rahul World Cup Records

• Has the fastest century in an ODI World Cup game by an Indian: 62 balls against the Netherlands in 2023
• Is  the second Indian wicketkeeper-batsman to score a century in an ODI World Cup after Rahul Dravid
• He was India’s fourth-highest run scorer in the 2023 ODI World Cup

KL Rahul IPL Records

• A 14-ball fifty: In 2018, Rahul scored a half-century off just 14 balls against Delhi Daredevils. This was the then fastest fifty in the IPL before Yashasvi Jaiswal broke the record
• Runs galore: Rahul has scored more than 590 runs in each of the IPL seasons from 2018 to 2022
• Orange cap winner: Rahul won the orange cap for scoring the most runs in the IPL 2020 season: 670
• Highest score by an Indian: His 132 not out against RCB in 2020 remains the highest score by an Indian batsman in the IPL
• Second-most hundreds: With four centuries to his name, Rahul is second only to Virat Kohli for the most hundreds by an Indian in the IPL