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KL Rahul says he is looking forward to becoming more consistent in the longer format of the game and wants to cement his place in the starting 11, reports Cricbuzz. The young opener from Karnataka has already scored Test centuries against Australia and Sri Lanka.
Rahul stays away from cricket during off-season
Rahul, who is currently representing the Hubli Tigers in the Karnataka Premier League (KPL), shared some of his on-field and off-field stories since making his debut for India against the Aussies last year.
Rahul loves playing football and tennis when not playing cricket and loves spending time with his friends whenever he has some time off.
“I'm an adventurist, I like to go out. I am disciplined when I have games, but if I don't have a game or during an off season, I go out with friends, go to different places, travelling and do something fun,” he says.
KL Rahul says he is extremely disciplined during matches, but during off days he does everything and anything that isn’t cricket.
“I'm looking to enjoy my life. I have always felt like there is life after the game,” Rahul said. “And I don't want to be 45 years old and regret that 'I didn't do this or I didn't do that.”
Rahul wants either Ranbir Kapoor or Cristian Bale play him in his biopic if there is ever one made.
AB De Villiers is my inspiration: Rahul
Rahul goes on to say that AB de Villiers is his role model and calls him a complete cricketer and a complete batsman. Rahul played alongside De Villiers for a year when he was at RCB.
“He has been an inspiration to me. I was lucky enough to play a year alongside him. We all know that he is a wonderful cricketer. He is also a wonderful human being. He was always there to help us, youngsters. He knew that we had the skill, but we were little nervous when we went out there. He sensed that and so he would come up to us and spend time with us off the field. Give us a few pointers. Not just me, Karun [Nair], Mayank [Agarwal], and all of us (benefited) when we were in the team (with AB de Villiers). We admire him for that.”
“Whatever the team wants him to do; we've seen him doing everything. If you want a 10-ball fifty, he'll go and get you a 10-ball fifty; if you want him to play one whole day and save you a Test match, he will do that. He'll keep wickets, he'll field in slips, he'll do everything the team wants. I'm a great admirer of AB de Villiers.”
Rahul said that, given a chance, he would have loved to be a part of the 2011 World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka which India went on to win.
“A World Cup final is an ultimate dream and we won it. To see the emotion on the faces (of the Indian players) like Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag - the guys who played for 15-odd years. To see them in tears after winning shows how much a World Cup means and how big it is in a cricket player's career,” he said.
Rahul reveals his funniest moment in his career so far
Rahul made his debut against the Aussies at the MCG and said that the sledging from the home side is never funny and that they do get into one’s head. But he also revealed that an incident associated with the same accounted for his funniest moment yet in his short international career.
“It was the first day of my Test career. I debuted in MCG and I was fielding that day. It was the last over of the day and [Mohammed] Shami was bowling to [Brad] Haddin. He had him in a bit of a problem, hit him on his elbow and chest and he was struggling a little bit. I was at short-leg and I said something to Brad Haddin as he went off. He got offended - he said a few things and I said a few things. On the way back, he said 'be careful, [Mitchell] Johnson might break your head tomorrow. You are still young.' I said something back to him.”
“In the dressing room, when we were showering, MS [Dhoni] asked me 'KL did you say something to him?' I said 'Yeah. I said something.' Dhoni then replied 'Okay. That's fine. It'll be better if you can plug in some cotton in your ears when you go to bat, because you are going to get a lot.' The way he said it was very funny.”
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