KL Rahul

A tall, elegant right-hand batter who has often stepped up to also keep wicket, KL Rahul is among India's highly rated openers. Though his numbers have not quite reflected the dominance and elegance of his batting, India and his franchise teams have benefitted from his ability and willingness to move up and down the order when the need arises.

Rahul was in India's 2010 Under-19 World Cup squad and made his first-class debut later that year. He enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2013-14, scoring over 1000 runs in Karnataka's Ranji Trophy win, including a Player-of-the-Match performance in the final. Twin centuries in the 2014-15 Duleep Trophy final earned him a place in India's Test squad on their tour of Australia, where he scored a hundred in only his second Test, in Sydney, and followed it with two more hundreds in his next four Tests - in Colombo and Kingston. Then, against England in Chennai in 2016, he scored 199, showcasing decisive footwork and confident reverse-sweeping.

In between he had a profitable 2016 IPL, which got him call-ups to India's limited-overs sides. Subsequently, he became the first Indian batter to score a hundred on men's ODI debut, against Zimbabwe, and a couple of months later smashed a T20I hundred, against West Indies. Between 2018 and 2022, Rahul scored over 590 runs in every IPL season - including a 14-ball 50 against Delhi Daredevils in 2018 - but for large parts of this period he was criticised for his strike rate, to which he responded at one point by saying "strike rate is very, very overrated". In the last of those seasons, he also led debutant franchise Lucknow Super Giants to the playoffs.

Though he has ranked high in discussions of who India's second-best batter has been during the Virat Kohli era, Rahul hasn't always lived up to that tag, having averaged only around 34 in his first 60 Tests. He was dropped from the side after a lean run between 2018 and 2019, but worked on his defensive game, particularly on leaving the ball outside off stump, and made a comeback in 2021, scoring hundreds in memorable overseas wins at Lord's and in Centurion.

But when India began to routinely pick only five batters so they could try to win more overseas, and later as young batters like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill cemented their places in the side, it appeared as if Rahul's time was over. However, his hunger to make it to the XI was evident when he agreed to take up wicketkeeping duties in the absence of the injured Rishabh Pant, and went on to score yet another hundred in Centurion - this time from the middle order - two years after his previous century there.

He was a valuable contributor in India's run to the ODI World Cup semi-final in 2019, and even more so when they made the final in 2023, starting with an unbeaten 97 against Australia after India had been reduced to 3 for 2, and finishing as the tournament's highest-scoring No. 5, while also keeping wicket. He was overlooked for the 2024 T20 World Cup - which India won - despite a strong IPL season leading up to it, but contributed important unbeaten scores when they clinched the Champions Trophy early the following year.

Rahul returned to the Test opening position - as a replacement for the absent Rohit Sharma - when India toured Australia in 2024-25, scoring a crucial 84 in the draw in Brisbane. On the tour of England in 2025, he made 137 in the defeat at Headingley and then 55 in the win at Edgbaston, both times in the second innings.

- KL Rahul has played for five IPL teams since his debut in 2013. That includes Royal Challengers Bengaluru (2013 and 2016), Sunrisers Hyderabad (2014 and 2015), Punjab Kings (2018-21), Lucknow Super Giants (2022-24). In 2025, Rahul added a fifth team to this list when he was picked up by Delhi Capitals in the auction for INR 14 crore (USD 1.67 million approx).

- Rahul had a fruitful season with DC in 2025, smashing 539 runs in 13 innings at 53.90, which included a top score of 112*. He was retained for IPL 2026 for his price of INR 14 crore.

- A versatile batter who started in the middle order before moving to the top, Rahul also keeps wicket in the IPL, and has emerged as one of the league's most consistent run-scorers, with seven 500-plus run seasons.

- In IPL 2018, Rahul smashed a fifty off 14 balls against Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals), which was the record for the fastest half-century in the IPL at the time. He also won the Orange Cap for the most runs in the season: 670.

- With five centuries ahead of IPL 2026, Rahul is second only to Virat Kohli among Indian batters with most hundreds in the IPL.