Rahul scored a 100 off 197 balls on Day 2 of the first Test in Ahmedabad.
The 2.0 version of KL Rahul in 2025 has become a common topic to discuss among cricket pundits and fans. Starting from Champions Trophy, Indian Premier League (IPL), Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, and the ongoing IND vs WI home Test series, the India opener is finally showcasing his latent potential and making it count.
Earlier today, on October 3, Rahul broke his home century drought after scoring 100 off 197 balls against the West Indies on Day 2 of the first Test at Ahmedabad. It’s only his second century on Indian soil, as the first came in 2016. The century also came with a new ‘whistle’ celebration instead of his iconic ‘shut the noise’ pose, in tribute to his newborn daughter.
After Stumps, the 33-year-old spoke about what exactly is on the mind of the KL Rahul 2.0 version.
Just last week, Rahul scored a daddy hundred for India A against Australia A. Previously, in England, he scored two centuries, and one against England Lions. To add to that, another hundred came for the Delhi Capitals. It’s no secret that Rahul has been a different gravy this year, but what’s the secret?
Hearing it from the batter himself, “I needed to make that mental switch to enjoy grinding and getting 100s with singles and twos as well. So that’s something that I’ve worked on in the last year or so. And yeah, I think that’s the only difference that I can see. And probably that’s why I wasn’t doing that well previously when I played at home.”
A change of position, from No.3 or 4 or 5 to the opening spot, had often been one of the speculations. But the real change has come from the batter himself, which has more to do with the temperament side of things. Rahul is infamous for his low scoring rate during the World Cup 2023 Final. But, obviously, it’s not something he enjoyed. He sought the fastest half-century in IPL version of Rahul, and in turn, kept throwing his wicket. Come 2025, he started to enjoy his batting tempo, be it playing the role of an aggressor or anchoring the innings for India in the longest format.
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Despite boasting nine overseas centuries compared to a solitary 2016 outing, KL Rahul highlighted the challenges between playing conditions.
He said, “When you travel abroad and play in seaming, swinging conditions with extra bounce, there’s a lot of challenge doing that. And when we come back home, when there’s three spinners playing and the field’s spread out, you really need to dig in and need to get your runs with singles. The boundaries don’t come that easily.”
For the unversed, the English conditions are popular for seam and swing, Australia for extra bounce, and India for spin-friendly tracks. Rahul highlighted how adjustment to various decks comes with its own challenges. He also spoke about the difficulty of scoring boundaries in home conditions, which puts emphasis on strike rotation, tying the threads back to Rahul’s latest assignment of working on his batting tempo.
Rahul’s second home hundred may have come after a long gap of nine years, but it’s the result of sheer hard work by the Karnataka batter, who whistled past a mental challenge largely created by his own struggle to shut out the outside noise over the years.
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