New Delhi: Lokesh Rahul, who has traveled from ‘suspension’ to ‘captain’ in three years, has become a big figure in the Indian cricket world. His seven-year international career may have been full of ups and downs but his list of achievements is long. It is because of his sporting prowess that the selectors are now going to give him a chance to lead the team.
With Rohit Sharma not fully recovering from his leg injury, Rahul will now lead India’s one-day international team in the upcoming series against South Africa. The selectors are also working hard to prepare him as the next captain. As part of the upcoming series, three ODIs against South Africa will be played in Paarl and Cape Town on January 19, 21 and 23.
The turning point in Rahul’s career, which has been in and out of the Indian team, came in January 2019 when he and all-rounder Hardik Pandya were suspended by the administrators of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for allegedly making derogatory remarks towards women during the chat show ‘Koffee With Karan’. He was suspended midway through the tour of Australia by the Committee (COA) and he had to return home.
The CoA lifted the suspension of Rahul and Pandya in two weeks, but both these players could not even go on the New Zealand tour after being out of the Australia tour. Rahul later admitted that the incident in 2019 changed his attitude towards cricket. The right-handed batsman then said, “A lot of the credit for the consistency in my performances goes to how I started thinking differently after 2019. With this suspension and whatever happened, I got greedy or I wanted to be selfish and play for myself and I failed. So I told myself that I need to get on the field and do what the team wants me to do.”
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“We all know that our career is not long enough. I realized after 2019 that I probably have 12 or 11 years left and I need to devote all my time and energy to become a player for the team. This change in mindset helped a lot and the pressure on me was lessened as I focused on doing better for the team and being a part of the champion team and making a difference in the game.”
Born on 18 April 1992 in Bangalore, Rahul’s father KN Lokesh and mother Rajeshwari are both professors, but when Rahul took up the bat at the age of 10, this became his first love. Rahul got the chance to represent India in the 2010 ICC Under-19 World Cup for the first time in a major tournament. This tournament held in New Zealand was disappointing for the Indian team and the team finished sixth. Despite being India’s second top scorer, Rahul could only manage 143 runs in six matches at an average of 28.60 and did not find a place in the top 30 batsmen of the tournament.
Rahul also made his first-class debut for Karnataka in the same year. Rahul slowly started establishing his feet in senior cricket. He was the second top scorer of the tournament in the 2013–14 Ranji Trophy with 1033 runs in 10 matches at an average of 68.86. The eyes of the selectors had fallen on Rahul. He played 185 and 130 runs for South Zone against Central Zone in the 2014–15 Duleep Trophy, when the selectors included him in the Indian team for the tour of Australia.
The then captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni gave Rahul a chance to make his debut in place of Rohit in the first Boxing Day Test in Melbourne but he disappointed. While playing at number six in the first innings, Rahul could only score three runs while playing at number three in the second innings. Dhoni, however, did not lose faith in Rahul and did not disappoint his captain as he opened the innings with Murali Vijay in the next Test in Sydney, scoring his maiden international century with a 110-run knock.
On his return home, Rahul became the first batsman to score a triple century for Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy against Uttar Pradesh, scoring 337 runs. Rahul made his ODI debut on the Zimbabwe tour in 2016 and became the first batsman from India to score a century in his debut ODI at Harare Sports Club. He is the only batsman to score a century in his first Test and One Day International innings as an opener. Rahul also got a chance to make his international debut in T20 on the same tour.
He failed to open an account in the debut match but he made an unbelievable record of hundreds in all three formats of the game in just 20 international innings when he scored an unbeaten 110 against the West Indies at Lauderhill, USA on 27 August the same year. Rahul is included in the elite list of only 18 players in the world and only three players from India to score centuries in all three formats of the game. Apart from Rahul, Suresh Raina and Rohit have done this feat for India. In the Indian Premier League too, Rahul has spread his flame.
Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) added them with the joint third highest bid of Rs 11 crore in the 2018 auction and he did not disappoint the team, scoring the fastest half-century in IPL history in the very first match by scoring a 14-ball half-century. Fifty century in his name. Rahul scored his maiden IPL century in 2019 by scoring an unbeaten 100 against Rohit’s Mumbai Indians. Rahul was made the captain of the Punjab team after former captain Ravichandran Ashwin joined Delhi Capitals in 2020.
He holds the record for the highest individual score by an Indian batsman in IPL this season by scoring 132 off 69 balls against Royal Challengers Bangalore. He was the top scorer this season with 670 runs in 14 matches at an average of 55.83 with five fifties and a century and won the Orange Cap. Rahul was the third highest scorer in IPL 2021 with 626 runs but only nine and seven runs difference between them was Ruturaj Gaikwad (635) of Chennai Super Kings and second-ranked Faf du Plessis (633) of the same team. . (agency)