Indian batsman KL Rahul has expressed his desire to return to the T20I squad, with the 2026 World Cup firmly in his sights. The 33-year-old acknowledged that he has often had to adjust to the team’s needs and, once given a specific role, focused on refining his game to meet expectations.
Rahul also mentioned that having a clear understanding of his role from the selectors has enabled him to prepare better and perform at his best for the team.
“I want to return to the T20I team with the World Cup in mind, but for now, I’m just focusing on enjoying my game. I prefer adapting to challenges rather than overthinking. Once I know my role—whether at number five or six—I work with my coach to plan how to contribute best to the team”, said Rahul.
Rahul also shared that during his early years, his playing style was better suited to the longer formats of the game. He added that until his time as an under-19 player, hitting the ball over the boundary was not something he could do comfortably.
“If you speak to a couple of cricketers I grew up with like Karun Nair, we have played all our cricket together. Mayank Agarwal, as well. These two boys have played with ever since I was 11 years old and first time we played state cricket for Karnataka was together and we went on to play age group cricket together, Ranji Trophy and for India.”
“If you ask them they will tell you that till I finished Under-19 cricket, till I was 20-21, I could not hit a six. I couldnt hit the ball in the air, and I had no confidence to clear the boundary,” he said.
KL Rahul considers his 2021 Lord’s century as one of the three best innings of his career
During India’s 2021 tour of England, KL Rahul played a crucial century in the first innings at Lord’s, helping set up a victory for the team. The 33-year-old ranked that performance among the top three Test innings of his career.
“Definitely in the top three. In England, I toured a couple of times, had got some runs before. And I knew James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Mark Wood would be very good at exploiting the Dukes ball and it was going to be hard.”
“I trained really hard for that. I was out of the Test team for a long time before that. So I worked on my game and Lord’s is something that every cricketer looks forward to and wants his name on the honours board,” he said.
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