"The World Cup is in my mind" - Star India batter admits having hopes of T20I comeback amid IPL 2025

Indian batter KL Rahul has said that he wanted to make a comeback into the T20I side, and the World Cup in 2026 was in his mind. The 33-year-old admitted that he has had to adapt to the team's requirements more often than not, and once a role was assigned to him, he worked on his game to try and deliver the results.

Rahul added that getting clarity about his role from the selectors had helped him prepare accordingly and put his best foot forward for the team.

"Yes, I want to get back in the T20I team and the World Cup is in my mind, but for now it's just trying to enjoy how I'm playing right now. I just want to be in the team and whatever challenge is thrown at me, I have found that that's better for me to adapt my game rather than trying and sit and think about what I need to do and when the role's been given to me, when the captain, coach, selectors tell me 'this is what is expecting of you, maybe number five, maybe number six'. It gives me a bit of clarity and I work around my game, speak and work with my coach, try and come up with a plan and see how I can deliver for the team," Rahul said in an interview to Sky Sports.

Rahul also revealed that growing up, his game was more suited to the longer format. He also said that until he was an under-19 cricketer, he could not clear the boundary with ease.

"If you speak to a couple of cricketers I grew up with like Karun Nair, we have played all our cricket together. Mayank Agarwal, as well. These two boys have played with ever since I was 11 years old and first time we played state cricket for Karnataka was together and we went on to play age group cricket together, Ranji Trophy and for India. If you ask them they will tell you that till I finished Under-19 cricket, till I was 20-21, I could not hit a six. I couldnt hit the ball in the air, and I had no confidence to clear the boundary," he said.

KL Rahul rates hundred at Lord's in 2021 in top three tons he has scored in his career

On India's tour to England in 2021, KL Rahul had set up a win for the visitors at Lord's with a century in the first innings. The 33-year-old rated that knock in the top three Test innings that he had played in his career.

"Definitely in the top three. In England, I toured a couple of times, had got some runs before. And I knew James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Mark Wood would be very good at exploiting the Dukes ball and it was going to be hard. I trained really hard for that. I was out of the Test team for a long time before that. So I worked on my game and Lord's is something that every cricketer looks forward to and wants his name on the honours board," he said.

India begin their five-match Test series against England at Leeds on June 20. The India A side will play two matches against England Lions, the first of which will start on May 30 in Canterbury.