KL Rahul may now be one of India’s most versatile all-format players but things were not always this way. In a candid conversation with Nasser Hussain on Sky Sports, the India batter opened up about being branded unfit for white-ball cricket in his early days.
With IPL 2025 behind him, Rahul is now preparing for India’s five-Test tour of England. As the conversation turned to his Test record - particularly his impressive overseas hundreds - Rahul revisited his early struggles, especially the widespread perception that he was not cut out for ODIs or T20Is.
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What did KL Rahul say about his early white-ball struggles?
Rahul said that until the age of 20 or 21, he didn’t have the ability or the confidence to clear the boundary.
“Till I finished under-19 cricket, until I was 20-21, I couldn’t hit a six. I couldn’t hit the ball in the air and had no confidence to clear the boundary,” he told Hussain.
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Having come through the ranks with childhood teammates Karun Nair and Mayank Agarwal, Rahul explained that his game was shaped by the red-ball-first environment he grew up in.
“I was almost branded and tagged as a four-day and red-ball cricketer and had no skill or future in white-ball cricket,” he added.
Why was KL Rahul seen as a Test player first?
Rahul traced this perception back to the era in which he developed his game. Growing up before the IPL boom, his early coaching and domestic cricket journey focused heavily on the fundamentals of long-format batting - playing late, keeping the ball down, leaving deliveries and grinding out innings.
“IPL and T20s happened in 2007-08, and by then I had already started playing professional cricket at the age-group level. A lot of my early coaching was all about red-ball cricket — head down, play it along the ground, leave the ball,” he concluded.
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The transition to white-ball success didn’t come overnight. Rahul said he had to work his way into becoming a reliable player across formats - a journey that now sees him heading into a crucial overseas Test series with seven of his eight centuries coming outside India
What is KL Rahul's record in ODIs, Tests and T20Is?
Rahul averages only in the 30s in the Test and T20I formats, but has found success in the format that balances caution and ball-striking, the ODIs.
In the 50-over format, he averages close to 50 having scored over 3000 runs.
| Format | Innings | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | Highest | 50s/100s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ODI | 79 | 3043 | 49.08 | 88.17 | 112 | 18/7 |
| Test | 101 | 3257 | 33.57 | 52.80 | 199 | 17/8 |
| T20I | 68 | 2265 | 37.75 | 139.12 | 110* | 22/2 |
(Stats correct as of May 26, 2025)