With the IPL 2025 over for KL Rahul, the India star is set to leave for England early next month for the five-match Test series against England. But Rahul, fresh from a seventh 500-run IPL season, has bigger plans set for himself. Despite not having featured in a T20 international game since November 2022, the Karnataka star declared he has “the World Cup is in my mind” and is desperate to get back into the scheme of things for the ICC tournament, scheduled for February-March next year in India and Sri Lanka.
“Yes, I want to get back in the T20 team and the World Cup is in my mind, but for now it’s just trying to enjoy how I’m playing right now,” Rahul said in a Sky Sports interview with Nasser Hussain.
Even though the Delhi Capitals failed to make it to the playoffs this season, Rahul emerged as their highest run-getter, with 539 runs in 13 innings, comprising a century and three fifties.
Despite making his intentions clear, Rahul admitted he is rather reserved about having a chat with the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee or with the captain on what he wants, and instead has his focus on just being in the team, irrespective of the challenges thrown at him.
“If you have seen how my career has gone, I don’t think I really had a choice or I have never been a player to speak with the selectors and sit with the captain and tell the captain that this is what I want to do. I just want to be in the team and whatever challenge is thrown at me, I have found that’s better for me to adapt to rather than me trying to sit and think about what I need to do. When the role is given to me and the coaches and the captain and the selectors tell me that look this is what we are expecting for you, may be No.5, maybe No. 6, open the batting. Yeah, that sort of gives me a clarity and then I work around my game,” he said.
KL Rahul changes tune on strike rate
Having a 500-run season was never an issue for Rahul. But criticisms around his T20 game pertained to his strike rate. Since that sensational 2018 season, where he had clocked 158.41, Rahul failed to get his strike rate above 140, until 2025, when he finished with 149.72.
“I obviously had some time to think about my white-ball game and white-ball cricket; I was quite happy with my performances and where I was,” Rahul said. But [there] was a time probably 15 months ago or 12 months ago where I realised that the game is slightly getting ahead or it’s changing and becoming much more faster, and I said this in an interview as well, that it’s become more about the team that hits more boundaries is winning the games more often than the team that’s, I can’t say playing smarter, but the team that doesn’t hit as many boundaries is always finding themselves on the losing side.”
Rahul had failed to make the cut for the 2024 T20 World Cup, where India won the title. Following the exclusion, the India star opened up on how he worked on his game with the help of former India batting coach Abhishek Nayar.
“So that’s where white-ball cricket is getting and I haven’t been part of the T20 team in the last couple of years. [That’s] given me some time to think about my T20 game as well,” Rahul said. “So, overall, just sitting and thinking about where I can get better, where the game’s gone and what I need to do to catch up with the game and what can I do to perform and get back in the T20 team, what can I do to become an important player for my team in ODI and T20 overall in white-ball cricket…
“Just sitting and thinking about these things, I’ve come up with certain things obviously with the help of coaches that I’ve worked with, Abhishek Nayar is one of the guys I’ve worked with in the last 12 months quite a lot. He’s come into the Indian team as a batting coach [but has been removed since] so I spent a lot of time with him and he really helped in helping me change my thinking and helping me work on my game.”
