KL Rahul speeds up in bid to 'get back in the T20 team' ahead of 2026 T20 World Cup

KL Rahul's IPL is over. Next up is Test cricket, five Tests in England. Then much else before we get to the next T20 World Cup, in February-March next year in India and Sri Lanka. Rahul is hoping to make that squad - "the World Cup is in my mind" - even though he hasn't played a T20I since November 2022.

"Yes, I want to get back in the T20 team and the World Cup is in my mind, but for now it's just trying to enjoy how I'm playing right now," Rahul said in a Sky Sports interview with Nasser Hussain on the sidelines of IPL 2025. He's done with the IPL now, his team Delhi Capitals (DC) having been knocked out of the race to the playoffs some time ago, but Rahul ended as their highest run-getter: 539 runs in 13 innings at a strike rate of 149.72.

Scoring a lot of runs in the IPL isn't new for Rahul, who scored 520 in IPL 2024, 616 in IPL 2022, 626 in IPL 2021 and 670 in IPL 2020, which earned him the Orange Cap. The issue has been with his strike rate, failing to top 140 in the last many seasons, which has seen him being edged out of the India T20I side.

"I obviously had some time to think about my white-ball game and white-ball cricket; I was quite happy with my performances and where I was," Rahul, who had once come under fire for saying "strike rate is very, very overrated", said. "But [there] was a time probably 15 months ago or 12 months ago where I realised that the game is slightly getting ahead or it's changing and becoming much more faster, and I said this in an interview as well, that it's become more about the team that hits more boundaries is winning the games more often than the team that's, I can't say playing smarter, but the team that doesn't hit as many boundaries is always finding themselves on the losing side."

When India won the T20 World Cup in 2024, Rahul wasn't a part of the line-up.

"So that's where white-ball cricket is getting and I haven't been part of the T20 team in the last couple of years. [That's] given me some time to think about my T20 game as well," Rahul said. "So, overall, just sitting and thinking about where I can get better, where the game's gone and what I need to do to catch up with the game and what can I do to perform and get back in the T20 team, what can I do to become an important player for my team in ODI and T20 overall in white-ball cricket...

"Just sitting and thinking about these things, I've come up with certain things obviously with the help of coaches that I've worked with, Abhishek Nayar is one of the guys I've worked with in the last 12 months quite a lot. He's come into the Indian team as a batting coach [but has been removed since] so I spent a lot of time with him and he really helped in helping me change my thinking and helping me work on my game."

In early April, on a video posted on the IPL website, Rahul was engaged in a bit of banter with Kevin Pietersen, the DC mentor. The video showed Rahul quoting Pietersen from an earlier time as having said, "Watching KL is like sitting and watching the paint dry on the wall."

"Did I say that," Pietersen asked, to which Rahul replied, "Yeah." And Pietersen, never short of a quick comeback, finished with, "Well, I'm glad you changed your game."

For the record, Rahul's strike rate of 149.72 in IPL 2025 is a steep rise from his 136.12, 113.22, 135.38, 138.80 and 129.34 in the five preceding seasons.

"I think it's good to have a little bit of banter, and yeah, I mean, these were times when I still used to read and see stuff that was said about me," Rahul told Hussain. "There is obviously a drive if someone's saying that I can't do something or someone's saying that is the most boring player to watch in T20 cricket or in the powerplay... I mean there's a bit more in me when I go into the next game.

"I've spent a couple of weeks with KP here at the IPL and you realise that they don't mean any harm to you, just what he's seen on TV and it's what he felt and he said that on TV. So there's nothing more. So it's been easy for me since I started seeing it that way: if someone is a commentator or a fellow cricketer has said that, obviously it's what he's seen and what he feels so that you don't take it personally I think that's a bit easier."