Flamboyant wicketkeeper batter KL Rahul opened up on the criticism he faced in the first half of 2023 and the injury which kept him out of cricket for about 4-5 months. Rahul struggled with form earlier this year and things turned worse for him when he sustained an injury during the Indian Premier League. Rahul underwent thigh surgery and returned to the team in Asia Cup 2023.
Despite a long break from cricket, Rahul showed no signs of rustiness and smashed a brilliant century in his comeback game against arch-rivals Pakistan.
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Rahul opened up on the tough phase in his life and said it was painful for him when people were criticizing him despite not being that bad form.
“There was a lot of criticism, people were commenting on my performance in every match and situation, and I wasn’t able to understand why it was happening, because my performance wasn’t that bad. So that was very painful I know the pain of going through an injury and the process of coming back initially, and then I had an injury during the IPL, and when I found out I’ll be losing 4-5 months, being a part of the World Cup was also not a 100% sure so that was a very difficult time,” Rahul told Start Sports.
However, the 29-year-old said he knew the process of going through an injury as he has already sustained many in his career thus far.
“But all the years I have been playing for Indian cricket, in my short career I’ve undergone a lot of surgeries and also had a lot of injuries. So I know the pain of going through an injury and the process of coming back, and how hard it gets and when you’ve got to push, I already knew in my mind and understood the process,” he added.
Rahul further said playing in the World Cup in India was the only motivation for him during the recovery period of his injury.
“I was very positive as well and there was only one motivation that I had to come back before the World Cup, and I have to be a part of this home World Cup. We were preparing from a lot of time keeping this in mind, and every morning I have been waking up thinking we need to win the World Cup, and that has been my only motivation. Every day in the morning that’s what got me out of bed and pushed me to do the boring work in the gym and that tells you how special it is to me and everybody, playing a home world cup is a dream for a cricketer and is special to all cricketers, so yeah I’m pretty excited,” he concluded.
Rahul started the World Cup campaign with an impressive 97-run* knock and helped India outclass Australia in a low-scoring thriller at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.
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