KL Rahul Reveals Reason Behind His Improved Reaction Time

KL Rahul has been brilliant on the tour of England, a key series of his Test career. Prior to this series, he averaged 33.58 in over 100 innings, which did not do justice to the talent he possesses.

However, in this series, Rahul has scored 336 runs in five innings, which is second only to his performance in the 2017 Australia tour of India, where he scored 393 runs in seven innings. He is most likely to surpass that and make this series his greatest ever. 

So what has changed between India’s tour of Australia 2024-25, where Rahul managed 276 in 10 innings at a mediocre average of 30.67, to now? Rahul himself answered the question at the end of Day 3 of the third Test of the five-match series at Lord’s. 

"In the last year or so, I've worked on a few mental drills. I spent a bit of time with an expert who helped me improve my reaction time. These are mental games that help you get better with reaction time and things like that," Rahul was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz, after he scored his 10th Test ton. 

Rahul thanked his association with the Red Bull group for his improvement in reaction time, as the group is involved with Formula 1, where the reaction time of drivers is the most important thing. 

"I think a lot of other sports use it... I've seen this in Formula 1 quite a lot. I picked this up from one of the guys I worked with in Salzburg. I'm closely associated with Red Bull, so I had the opportunity to go there and work with some of the coaches. They work with elite Formula 1 guys and other adventure sports people who require a lot of this mental side of the game,” said the 33-year-old. 

"So I've worked on that, and I guess that's the only thing that's been different in the last year or so. I've always enjoyed batting for long periods of time, even when I was growing up. I always enjoyed batting for long hours and I could focus for long hours. I think a bit of that and a bit of this has just helped me in the last few years,” he added.