KL Rahul opens up about his exclusion from India's T20I team: ‘I am aware of my position’

Recently, KL Rahul, once hailed as an all-format player for Team India, finds himself in a different situation at 32 years old. He has been left out of both the Test and T20I squads, after not being a part of India's T20 World Cup winning team and failing to shine in the Indian Premier League. Despite these setbacks, KL Rahul remains grounded and aware of his position as a player. In a recent interview, he acknowledged the reality of his situation.

KL Rahul also said that he knows what he needs to do as a player to make a comeback into the T20I squad. Rahul, who will be entering the IPL mega auction, said that next year's tournament would be very crucial for him.

Lucknow Super Giants did not retain KL Rahul, and as a result, now it needs to be seen which franchise picks up the right-handed batter. KL Rahul has set his base price as INR 2 crore, ahead of the mega auction, which will go ahead in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on November 24 and 25.

"I've been out of the T20 team for a while," KL Rahul said in an interview with Star Sports.

"I know where I stand as a player, I know what I need to do to get back so I'll look forward to this IPL season to give me that platform to go back and enjoy my cricket. My main aim is to get back into the T20 team.

During the interview with Star Sports, KL Rahul also said that he tried his "best" as the skipper of Lucknow Super Giants. The right-handed batter spent three seasons with LSG, playing 38 matches for the franchise. He ended up scoring more than 1,200 runs for the franchise.

It was during IPL 2024 that a tipping point was reached between KL Rahul and LSG owner Sajiv Goenka. After the embarrassing ten-wicket loss against SunRisers Hyderabad, Sanjiv Goenka was seen having an animated chat with KL Rahul on the ground.

Going by the visuals, it did not look like a happy chat. Recently, after LSG announced Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Mayank Yadav and Mohsin Khan as their retentions ahead of IPL 2025, Sanjiv Goenka had seemingly taken a dig at KL Rahul.

Speaking about the retentions, Sanjiv Goenka said, "It was a simple mindset to go in with players who have a mindset to win, who put the team first before their personal goals and personal aspirations and we wanted to retain as much as of core we could."

KL Rahul has so far played 72 T20Is for India, scoring 2,265 runs at an average of 37.75 and a strike rate of 139.12.

The batter is currently in Australia for the upcoming five-match series, beginning November 22. On Monday, head coach Gautam Gambhir had also backed KL Rahul to come good as he is a quality player.

"I think that is the quality of KL Rahul that he can actually bat at the top of the order. He can bat at number three and he can actually bat at number six as well. So you need quite a lot of talent doing these jobs as well," said Gambhir.

"And he's kept in one day format as well. Imagine how many countries have played like who can actually open the batting and can bat at number six as well. So I feel if it be, I think he can do the job for us especially if Rohit is not available for the first Test," he added.