KL Rahul Talks Fitness, Focus and Ice Cream

After sitting out last season, KL Rahul’s back this year as Kings XI Punjab’s trotting horse. We chat diets, downtime and stepping out of the shadows.

- Arshie Chevalwala

KL Rahul’s had a rocky trajectory to the spotlight. At 17, he didn’t make the Under-19 team for the World Cup like he was convinced he would. But then he went on to play for the Indian team, garnering a lot of attention for a young player: He lay the foundation for Karnataka’s Ranji Trophy victory in 2013-14, racking up an impressive 1,033 runs. He’s the first Indian to score a century on his ODI debut. He’s also the second-fastest batsman to score a century in T20 cricket, and the second-fastest Indian, in all formats, to score a century. Then he bust his shoulder last year, and had to sit out much of the first half of 2017 – including the IPL and ICC Champions Trophy.

He’s back now though, and playing front and centre for Kings XI Punjab this season: “It’s a new adventure for me, playing for a different franchise. I’m going to be in a completely different role from what I had in RCB. There, I played alongside Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and Virat Kolhi. So of course I was second or third fiddle; there, you’d just try to set up the match so that they could come in and finish the game. But now, the roles may be different, somebody else might play in the shadows, and I might be the one expected to finish the game.”