En route to yet another half-century – his fifth fifty-plus score this season – KL Rahul, the Lucknow Super Giants captain and opener, became only the second batsman in the history of the IPL to register over 500 runs in five consecutive season; David Warner, the former SRH captain, was the first one to do it – he amassed over 500 runs in his six consecutive seasons.
KL Rahul’s career changed after he was released – not retained – by Royal Challengers Bangalore and he was bought by the Punjab Kings in the 2018 mega-auction. In 2018, he slammed 659 runs at a strike rate of 158 and had one of the best seasons as opener could dream of.
In the later years, Rahul, however, took a more subdued approach – justified by the lack of batting depth in the Punjab eleven. His big runs, and match-winning effectiveness though barely dropped despite his strike rate getting lower.
In 2019, the right-hander 593 runs, followed by two giant seasons where he recorded 670 and 626 runs while leading Punjab.
He asked to be released by the Anil Kumble-coached franchise and joined Gautam Gambhir-mentored and Andy Flower’s Lucknow Super Giants where he has continued his run-scoring penchant and is the second-leading run-scorer this season currently.
The consistency that Rahul has shown over the years has been incredible, to churn out runs and loads of runs while also adjusting his game according to the needs of his team. It has already been a difficult IPL 2022 for batters – with even the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma struggling for a big knock – but in that KL Rahul – and Jos Buttler – have been the standout with the bat.
500 runs in IPL for @klrahul for the fifth straight season. Becomes the first Indian player to achieve this feat.#TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/Pt9XaJFdBt
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 18, 2022
Against Kolkata Knight Riders, it was a typical KL Rahul innings: start slow and slowly step on the paddle. Rahul’s acceleration today, though, was overshadowed by Quinton de Kock’s blazing century.
Rahul, in fact, started slowly and was just 18 off 18 at the end of the powerplay. He then hit a couple of sixes to Tim Southee – and oh boy they were so sweetly timed – but apart from that Rahul was mostly playing the second fiddle role and giving de Kock most of the strike.
Twitter-verse went into a nice praiseful mood for KL ‘Consistent’ Rahul on his new record in the IPL:
These are wonderful numbers for a batter, anyone would happily take it but for KL Rahul it’s 60-70% output of his talent. https://t.co/VNTkjzE5l1
— ∆
(@CaughtAtGully) May 18, 2022
(@CaughtAtGully) 659 runs in IPL 2018.
593 runs in IPL 2019.
670 runs in IPL 2020.
626 runs in IPL 2021.
503* runs in IPL 2022.KL Rahul is on a roll in the IPL – totally in different league in terms of consistency.
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) May 18, 2022
659 runs in IPL 2018.
593 runs in IPL 2019.
670 runs in IPL 2020.
626 runs in IPL 2021.
503* runs in IPL 2022.KL Rahul is on a roll in the IPL – totally in different league in terms of consistency.#KLRahul @klrahul pic.twitter.com/puVHrbMIG4
— KLRAHUL TRENDS
(@KLRahulTrends_) Well played, KL Rahul. The he played today, the way he showed his maturity, his Second fiedel role is amazing. He scored Brilliant 68* runs from 51 balls including 3 Fours and 4 Sixes against KKR. pic.twitter.com/tnsz2rHidf
— CricketMAN2 (@ImTanujSingh) May 18, 2022
KL Rahul in T20s
vs Styen infinite avg, 266 SR
vs Narine 48 avg, 164 SR
vs Bumrah 71 avg, 127 SR
vs Archer infinite avg, 151 SR
Vs T Boult 39 avg , 191 SR
vs Hazlewood infinite avg, 167 SR
vs Chahal 87 avg , 145 SRWhen you knows nothing about cricket
— Manjit
No. Of innings with 150+ S/R :
Rohit Sharma : 50 out of 220
Virat Kohli : 43 out of 212
KL Rahul : 29 out of 97#IPL | #CricketTwitter— ABHISHEK BAMNAVAT
(@CoverDrive001) KL Rahul has 30 fifties and 4 hundreds from just 99 innings in IPL – incredible. pic.twitter.com/1RqGaiAnLO
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) May 18, 2022
Gambhir sends a player during strategic time-out to read out tweets against KL Rahul. #IPL
— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) May 18, 2022
KL Rahul has the ability to be a Ferrari but he wants to be a maruti 800. Serial under achiever in cricket
— Av1n4sh (@K1ckbut) May 18, 2022
KL Rahul is the best T20 batsman in the world, your trolls and abuses can’t change this fact, you jobless people’s troll him for his slow starts but you guy’s don’t have mind to understand what’s called game awareness, he isn’t a finisher who will bat with 200+ sr from ball one.
— Vishnu
(@MasterVKohli) Fastest to Complete 4000 T20 Runs :
107 Innings – Gayle
113 Innings – S Marsh
115 Innings – Babar
116 Innings – Conway*
117 Innings – KL Rahul#WhistlePodu | #IPL2022— CSK Fans Army
