"I'm the villain, he's hammering me!" - Kevin Pietersen on constant friendly banter with star batter during DC's IPL 2025 campaign

Delhi Capitals (DC) mentor Kevin Pietersen opened up about the constant friendly snipes and jabs with wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul over the course of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 campaign. The pair have struck a chord in the season, sparking the revival of KL Rahul in T20s.

KL Rahul took the first shot in the series of snide remarks by digging up the past. After his match-winning knock against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Chepauk, he brought up an old tweet posted by Kevin Pietersen, where his batting in the powerplay was likened to 'watching paint dry on the wall'.

The former England player laughed it off, and lauded the batter for his sublime innings.

KL Rahul took yet another shot at Pietersen after the latter re-joined the team following a mid-season vacation to the Maldives with his family. The DC mentor was speaking with Shubman Gill about his role in the coaching staff at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad ahead of the match against the Gujarat Titans (GT).

“What's a mentor? Nobody knows,” Pietersen told Gill.

“A mentor is someone who goes to the Maldives for two weeks mid-season,” KL Rahul, who was lurking nearby, responded.

Delhi Capitals (DC) uploaded a clip of this particular interaction on their social media pages, on which Pietersen posted a comment, defining what a mentor actually is.

The DC mentor revealed that the banter continues to this day, almost on a daily basis.

"He never lets me forget. Every day, we have a dart at each other. I'm the villain. He's hammering me! One of our deepest conversations was how difficult it must be to go from a guy that starts in second, third, fourth gear, gets to fifth gear, gets to sixth gear, and then no one can stop him; to a player that now needs to start in fourth gear, end up in fifth gear very quickly, and after five or six balls, be in sixth gear for the rest of the innings," Pietersen said in an interview with ESPN Cricinfo.

KL Rahul is having a brilliant season in a new role for DC. He is the leading run-scorer for the franchise with 371 runs in nine matches at an average of 53, and a strike rate of 146.06.

"He's also had the actual, practical change of going to the nets and hitting his first ball for six" - Kevin Pietersen on how KL Rahul has evolved

Pietersen lauded Rahul for acknowledging that he needed to change his approach in order to survive in the new-age T20 cricket. The wicketkeeper-batter was in desperate need of a revival after an ugly exit from the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the end of the 2024 season.

"I just take my hat off to these players who have played a certain way for such a long time, but because of the nature of where T20 cricket is now, have mentally said to themselves, 'I've got to change.' He's also had the actual, practical change of going to the nets and hitting his first ball for six. It's frightening to see how good these guys are - and KL in particular," Pietersen said.

DC, after their dream start to the season, have gone off the rails a bit midway through the season. They have recorded only one win from their last four matches, and will face the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Monday, May 5.