KL Rahul had a playful moment during his post-match chat with Delhi Capitals (DC) mentor Kevin Pietersen after his match-winning knock against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Chepauk on April 5. In a light-hearted dig, KL Rahul jokingly reminded Pietersen of his old comment calling his batting boring.
Rahul, however, was anything but boring in this game, scoring a fluent 77 off 51 balls with a strike rate of 150.98, smashing three sixes and six fours to help DC post 183/6. It marked his third half-century at the venue and 38th overall in the IPL. DC then went on to defend the total comfortably, sealing a 25-run win — their third straight victory this season.
In a video shared by the IPL, Rahul told Kevin Pietersen:
“It’s better than ‘watching paint dry on the wall’…that was your tweet about me one day.”
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Rahul’s comments came as he opened up about revamping his game following criticism over his slow strike rate while playing for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) last season — the same year he was dropped from the 2024 T20 World Cup squad.
On this, KL Rahul stated:
“I think somewhere along the way I lost that fun of hitting boundaries and hitting sixes. I wanted to take the game deep, deep, deep and that somehow stuck in my head. But now I have realised I need to go back… cricket’s changed, and T20 cricket, especially, is only about hitting boundaries. The team that hits more boundaries and sixes ends up winning the game.”
“So back to enjoying my cricket. I am not thinking too much about the game, not thinking about taking it deep or none of that stuff. Just see [the] ball and try and be aggressive and put the pressure on the bowler and the opposition and just enjoy hitting boundaries,” Rahul added.
“Sometimes you don’t credit these quick 20 runs. Axar, Sam (Rizvi) and Abishek they all walked in and contributed runs. In the context of this game, those are huge and they took the pressure off me. Those partnerships really worked well for the team and that’s what we can build on.”
KL Rahul thanks Abhishek Nayar for white-ball comeback
KL Rahul acknowledged Team India’s assistant coach Abhishek Nayar for playing a key role in his white-ball revival. The 32-year-old mentioned in the same video:
“I’ve worked really hard on my white-ball game the last year or so. Big shoutout to Abhishek Nayar. I’ve worked a lot with him ever since he’s come into the Indian team.”
“We’ve spent hours and hours together talking about my white-ball game and how I can be better. We worked hours and hours together in Bombay and somewhere I have found the fun playing white-ball cricket,” he added.
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