Always felt I was in right direction: KL Rahul on choosing cricket

KL Rahul delves into details of how he endures criticism and grows from it because playing cricket is his ultimate dream which he is living right now

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

India’s star batter KL Rahul feels that he was right to choose cricket as his calling. The 31-year-old, who scored a stunning century against South Africa in the first innings of the Boxing Day Test at Centurion, feels that he is doing what he always wanted to do as a child.

“There’s always been something within me from a very early age, a voice or an energy that always felt right. I always felt I was in the right direction. As always, I am very grateful that I picked a career path that I enjoy, and I wanted to do,” Rahul was quoted as saying in Star Sports’ new show called Believe.

Rahul, who debuted for India in December 2014, feels that whenever in his nine years of international cricket career, he felt that something was not going right, he would fall back to his dream of playing the game at the highest level.
 

“So, every time I find myself in a position like, ‘Oh, what am I doing? Why am I going through these injuries? Or why are so many people criticising me?’ I always go back to thinking that this is what you wanted to do, so it’s a part of your game,” said the Bengaluru-born.

KL Rahul on facing criticism

KL Rahul has had his fair share of ups and downs as he was even dropped from the Test team and criticised for playing too slowly in limited-overs cricket. Talking about how he reacts to criticism, Rahul said, “You can’t change people. You’re allowed to say what you feel, and a lot of it at that time felt more hurtful than it was probably.”

“Now looking back, I feel I could have looked at it very differently, but also a lot of it has to do with where you are personally. I wasn’t in a great space mentally at that time to take that kind of criticism,” he added.

Everything part of the journey

Rahul, who made a comeback into the Indian team just ahead of the Asia Cup 2023 after being injured since IPL 2023 in April, also believes that everything, the good or the bad, is part of the journey and one should accept it as it is.