Former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli recalled KL Rahul’s amazing transformation during his time at the franchise from being a technically proficient batter to a T20 beast, who could batter any bowling attack.
KL Rahul had first joined RCB in 2013 before being roped in by Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 1 crore for the next two seasons. He then returned to the RCB fold in IPL 2016 and finished the season as the franchise's third-highest run-scorer with 397 runs in 14 games.
Virat Kohli, in a conversation on ‘The RCB Podcast’, recalled the transformations of KL Rahul and Yuzvendra Chahal during their time at the RCB franchise.
“The only two people who come to mind for me are KL (Rahul) and Yuzi (Yuzvendra Chahal). KL Rahul was at RCB in 2013 along with Karun and Mayank. KL Rahul was never a guy who was looked at as a T20 specialist. He was part of the Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2015 and Avinash Vaidya was our manager before. He approached me because he was in touch with KL Rahul, and he was not getting any game time. And I had seen him play for India,” said Kohli on ‘The RCB Podcast’.
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Kohli further said that though he didn’t stay in touch much with KL Rahul after he left the RCB in 2014, he continued to track his performances in domestic cricket.
“I hadn’t seen much of KL since he left RCB, and I had heard he is doing well in first-class cricket. He was very young when he was at RCB, and I was already playing for India and we were regularly playing for RCB. So, we never really connected in a very detailed manner," he added.
“We wouldn’t spend so much time with each other. I had seen him play in Australia in 2014 when he made his Test debut and I felt like, ‘Wow! He’s seriously worked some wonder on his game. He’s come back as an amazing player, and he started off so strongly in Australia.’ I was very impressed with his body language, his confidence, his demeanor," he said.
Kohli further added: “He was playing for the Sunrisers and wasn’t getting many opportunities and the opportunities that he got, I felt like he was playing under pressure, you could see he was trying to prove a point, trying to prove himself in the IPL.
When the opportunity came through, I thought, this guy has got unbelievable talent, and maybe playing for Bangalore and RCB would ease things off for him because there, he’s playing in front of his home crowd and there’s AB, Chris, and myself here and if KL can play a role, maybe he can grow in confidence.”
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Virat Kohli, who stepped down as RCB captain ahead of the IPL 2021 tournament, then recalled the 2016 edition of the tournament, when RCB had reached the final. Rahul had averaged 44.11 in that season with a strike rate of 146.49 with four half-century scores.
“He doesn’t need to be the focal point or that youngster who has to prove himself. It’s all about being a part of this great team and showing what he can do. And the way he batted that season, for me, that was a great transformation of seeing a player who was just there and there about to becoming suddenly this beast in six months’ time. From there on he’s carried through,” Kohli said.
KL Rahul will lead the Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL 2022, while Kohli will continue playing for RCB.
(RCB podcast inputs)
