KL Rahul Biography: A Player who carries the load without getting the spotlight and is the backbone of Indian Cricket Team.His name is KL Rahul and how he played a crucial role in Indian Cricket.
Peronal Overview
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Kannanur Lokesh Rahul |
| Date of Birth | 18 April 1992 |
| Birthplace | Mangalore / Bengaluru, Karnataka, India |
| Age | 33 years (as of early 2026) |
| Height | 1.80 meters (5 feet 11 inches) |
| Role | Right-handed Batter, Wicket-keeper |
| Education | Completed high school at NITK English Medium School; Pre-university at St. Aloysius College |
| Estimated Net Worth | ₹101 crore |
| Teams | Karnataka, Delhi Capitals, India U-19, India-A, India |
Early Life
KL Rahul Biography: Rahul was born on 18 April 1992 to K. N. Lokesh and Rajeshwari in Bangalore, Karnataka in a Kannada-speaking family.
His father Lokesh, who comes from Kannanur in Magadi, is a professor and former director at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) in Mangalore.
His mother, Rajeshwari, is a professor at Mangalore University.
Rahul has a younger sister named Bhavna Lokesh.
His father was a huge fan of cricketer Sunil Gavaskar and wanted to name his own son after Gavaskar’s son but mistook Rohan Gavaskar’s name for Rahul.
He grew up in Surathkal, Mangalore, completing his High School at NITK English Medium School and PUC at St. Aloysius College.
He started cricket training at the age of 10, and, two years later, started playing matches for both Bangalore United Cricket Club and his club in Mangalore.
At age 18, he moved to Bangalore to study at Jain University and pursue his cricket career.
Domestic career
Rahul made his first-class cricket debut for Karnataka in the 2010–11 season.
In the same season, he represented his country at the 2010 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, scoring 143 runs in the competition.
He made his debut in the Indian Premier League in 2013, for Royal Challengers Bangalore.
During the 2013–14 domestic season he scored 1,033 first-class runs, the second highest scorer that season.
Playing for South Zone in the final of the 2014–15 Duleep Trophy against Central Zone, Rahul scored 185 off 233 balls in the first innings and 130 off 152 in the second.
He was named the player of the match and selected to the Indian Test squad for the Australian tour followed.
Returning home after the Test series, Rahul became Karnataka’s first triple-centurion, scoring 337 against Uttar Pradesh.
KL Rahul Biography: He went on to score 188 in the 2014–15 Ranji Trophy final against Tamil Nadu and finished the season with an average of 93.11 in the nine matches he played.
In January 2026, Rahul returned to represent Karnataka in the Vijay Hazare Trophy after a six-year gap, having last appeared in the tournament in 2019.
International career
KL Rahul Biography: His International Career’s List is quite long.
Rahul made his Test debut in the 2014 Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
He replaced Rohit Sharma and was presented with his Test cap by MS Dhoni.
In the test at Sydney where he opened the innings for the first time, and made his maiden international century, scoring 110 runs.
He was named in the 15-man squad for the Indian tour of Bangladesh in June 2015 but withdrew due to dengue.
He returned to the side for the first Test of the Sri Lankan tour after Murali Vijay was ruled out due to injury.
Scoring his second Test century and winning the Man of the Match award, During the match he kept wicket after Wriddhiman Saha was injured.
Two years after his Test debut, Rahul made his One-Day International debut in 2016 against Zimbabwe, where he scored his first century by hitting a six on the last ball to reach 100*.
Which was also the only six of the entire match.
Rahul is the first and only Indian cricketer to score an ODI century on his debut. On the same tour, he made his T20I debut.
Rahul got out on a golden duck on his T20I debut as India lost the first T20I against Zimbabwe.
In July 2016, Rahul was named in the squad for India tour of West Indies.
Rahul was named in T20I squad for the tour of West Indies in 2016, where he made his first T20I century of just 46 balls and ended up scoring an unbeaten 110 off just 51 balls.
He became the first player to score a T20I century while batting at number four in a one-run defeat while in pursuit of 246, the highest T20I run chase at that time.
In the second series test, Rahul scored 158 runs, his then-highest score in test cricket.
In September 2016, he was named in the squad for the home series against New Zealand. After the first test, he was replaced by Gautam Gambhir due to an injury.
Rahul was selected in the squad against England in the 2016-17 Test series but was injured while training in the nets.
He was ruled out of the third test, but he made his comeback to the team in the fourth test but failed to make an impact.
In the fifth and final test of the series, Rahul went on to make his fourth test ton, scoring his career-best 199 runs.
In his 20th international innings, Rahul became the fastest batsman to have scored centuries in all three formats, surpassing the record of Ahmed Shehzad, who took 76 innings.
On 3 July 2018, Rahul scored his second T20 International ton against England.
He is also the first Indian batsman to be dismissed hit-wicket in T20Is.
On 11 January 2019, Hardik Pandya and Rahul were suspended by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) following misogynistic comments they made on the Indian talk show Koffee with Karan earlier in the month.
They were both sent home ahead of the ODI series against Australia and the fixtures of India’s tour to New Zealand.
On 24 January 2019, after lifting the suspension on Pandya and Rahul, the BCCI announced that Rahul would re-join the squad for India A matches.
In April 2019, he was named in India’s squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup.
He played at number 4 in the first two games but got back to opening the innings alongside Rohit Sharma.
When Shikhar Dhawan was ruled out of the rest of the tournament due to injury.
Overall, Rahul scored 361 runs with two fifties and one hundred in the tournament and finished as India’s third-highest run scorer in the tournament after Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
Due to lack of form in the Test format, Rahul was dropped from the squad for the home Tests against South Africa.
However, he remained in the limited-overs sides.
In the first T20I match against the West Indies, Rahul scored his 1,000th run in T20I cricket.
In India’s tour of New Zealand in 2019–20, Rahul was declared man of the series in the five-match T20I series for scoring 224 runs at an average of 56.
He was also the stand-in captain in the 5th T20I after Rohit Sharma suffered a hamstring injury during the 1st innings.
In October 2020, Rahul was named as India’s vice captain for the ODI and T20I series against Australia.
Rahul was included in the test squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy but was not picked in the playing XI for the first two Tests.
He injured himself during practice and was ruled out of the remaining part of the tour.
As a result, he also missed the home Test series against England in February 2021.
He returned to the national side for the T20I and ODI series against England.
Rahul was named to India’s test squad for their tour of England in 2021.
As Shubman Gill and Mayank Agarwal were injured, Rahul opened alongside Rohit Sharma.
In the second test at Lord’s he scored a century and was named man of the match.
Rahul was named to India’s squad for the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
Rahul was appointed the vice-captain of the team in T20Is as former vice-captain, Rohit Sharma was appointed the new captain of T20I format.
Rahul was appointed ODI vice-captain as well due to the change of captaincy.
Rahul was also named as the ODI captain for the One Day series of the same tour as India’s regular ODI captain Rohit Sharma was ruled out of the series due to a hamstring injury.
In the second test against South Africa in January 2022, Rahul captained India for the first time in Test cricket and became the 34th Test captain of India.
He scored a half-century on his captaincy debut.
Rahul couldn’t lead the team to victory, and India lost the second Test by seven wickets.
In the first ODI against South Africa, he made his debut in ODI captaincy and became the 26th ODI captain of India. However, India lost the series 3–0 to South Africa.
Rahul was the stand-in captain for the team during the last match played by team India in the 2022 Asia Cup against Afghanistan.
Due to poor form, in February 2023 he was removed from the Test vice-captaincy, with his spot in the team questioned.
Rahul made his return to cricket in Asia Cup 2023 against Pakistan and scored a century on his return.
Rahul was named in the squad for 2023 Cricket World Cup.
Rahul recorded the fastest century by an Indian batter in a World Cup, when he reached the milestone in 62 deliveries.
He coincidentally broke the record held by Rohit Sharma who hit a century earlier of 63 deliveries in the tournament during India’s match against Afghanistan.
In December 2023, during the first test match of the series between India and South Africa, Rahul scored a century.
Rahul made his comeback to the ODI team post-injury against Sri Lanka.
Rahul was named in the squad for the 2-match Test series against Bangladesh in September 2024.
He was named in the India A squad and main squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Rahul started the series as an opener and managed to score two half centuries.
Later he was sent to one-down in the last two matches.
He ended the series as the third highest scorer for India, scoring 276 runs at an average of 30.66.
Rahul was selected in the ODI squad for the home series against England and Champions Trophy 2025.
He was later selected in the test series against England in June and July.
He had a good series scoring 532 runs at an average of 58.00 and 2 centuries and 2 half centuries in 5 matches.
In November 2025, Rahul was appointed stand-in captain of the Indian One Day International (ODI) team for the home series against South Africa.
In the absence of regular captain Shubman Gill due to injury.
Under his leadership, India won the three-match ODI series 2–1.
IPL Career
Rahul made his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) during the 2013 season.
Ahead of the 2014 IPL, he was bought by the Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 1 crore.
Rahul returned to RCB ahead of the 2016 season, where he finished the season as the 11th-highest run-scorer and RCB’s third, with 397 runs from 14 matches.
In the 2018 IPL auction, he was bought by Kings XI Punjab for INR 11 crore, the joint-third highest price.
His tenure with Punjab Kings was from 2018 to 2021.
Prior to the 2022 season, Rahul was drafted by Lucknow Super Giants as their captain for INR 17 crore, making him the joint highest paid cricketer in the IPL alongside Virat Kohli.
Rahul was retained as the captain for Lucknow Super Giants for 2023 season, but was ruled out of the tournament mid way after sustaining an injury while fielding in a match against RCB.
Rahul was publicly criticised by the owner of Lucknow Super Giants after a humiliating loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad in match.
His tenure with Lucknow Super Giants was from 2022 to 2024.
Rahul was released by the Lucknow Super Giants ahead of the 2025 IPL Mega Auction.
In the 2025 IPL Mega Auction, He was bought by Delhi Capitals for 14 crores.
Records
First Indian cricketer to score a century in all three formats.
Fastest Indian to score a T20I century.
Only Indian to score a century on ODI debut.
Among the fastest Indians to multiple run milestones in T20 cricket.
One of the few Indian openers to score multiple overseas Test centuries.
One of the most consistent IPL run-scorers across multiple franchises.
One of the fastest players to reach 4,000 & 5,000 IPL runs.
Scored a triple century (337) in Ranji Trophy — first Karnataka batter to do so.
Personal Life
On 23 January 2023, Rahul married his long-time girlfriend, actress Athiya Shetty daughter of actor Sunil Shetty, after dating for more than three years.
Shetty gave birth to a girl, on 24 March 2025.
Also Read: Hardik Pandya Biography: Fearless All-Rounder, From Streets to Stardom
