Perhaps no other international cricketer has been subjected to as much trolling as KL Rahul in the past year. The dip in his form in Test cricket, followed by fake and false “maiden over” stats circulating on social media, and not to forget a couple of former cricketers too laying heavy criticism on him made him a topic of excessive trolling.
Matters compounded for him when he picked up an injury during the IPL 2023, which ruled him out for a few months. This led to mass trolling of the classy right-handed batsman who otherwise had been a solid player in the Indian ODI team at number 5.
Following his match-winning knock of 97* vs Australia, KL Rahul opened up about the criticism and trolling he had gone through during his difficult period.
“There was a lot of criticism, people were commenting on my performance in every match and situation. I wasn’t able to understand why it was happening, because my performance wasn’t that bad. So, that was very painful,” Rahul told ‘Star Sports.
“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 four-five months, being a part of the World Cup was also not a 100% sure. So, that was a very difficult time.”
Only motivation was that I had to come back before the World Cup: KL Rahul
He made a brilliant comeback with a century against Pakistan last month in the Asia Cup 2023. And now, played one of his best-ever ODI knock under heavy pressure in India’s World Cup 2023 opener against Australia in Chennai.
With Rishabh Pant ruled out due to a car accident, India’s hopes were heavily pinned on KL Rahul to make a comeback and continue in his role as the keeper-batsman.
“I already knew in my mind and understood the process. 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,” he added.
“We were preparing for 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.”
