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KL Rahul Explains What Helped Him Perform On Tricky Chinnaswamy Wicket
Follow UsRahul scored an unbeaten 93* to take DC home against RCB on a tricky Chinnaswamy deck
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) did not secure the services of KL Rahul at the IPL 2025 mega auction. However, batting against RCB on April 10 (Thursday), he showed why it might be looked back upon as a mistake as he struck a brilliant 93* in the chase to help Delhi Capitals (DC) scale down 164 on an uncharacteristically sticky Chinnaswamy pitch.
Nearly every batter struggled on the day due to the slowness of the track, but not Rahul. He had scored 29 off his first 29 balls but hammered 64 off his next 24 balls as the rain arrived in the stadium, and Rahul’s pristine hitting simplified the chase.
Speaking about his innings, he said that being a wicketkeeper helped him get a measure of the wicket and it’s behaviour in the first 20 overs, which he then used in his batting to maximise his returns for his team.
“It was a slightly tricky wicket, but I think what helped me is just being behind the stumps for 20 overs and just watching how the wicket played," Rahul told Jio Hotstar after the game.
“From wicketkeeping, I figured that the ball sat in the wicket a little bit, but it was consistent throughout. It wasn't two-paced, it was one pace, and it just sat in the wicket a little bit. I knew what my shots are, so I just wanted to get off to a good start, be aggressive initially, and then assess it from there, and that's what I did.”
Understanding how the wicket was playing also helped Rahul easily find his scoring areas on the wicket as he stabilised himself on the crease. “On a wicket like this, I knew what my pockets were,” Rahul remarked.
“If I was going first trying to get a big six, I knew what pockets to target. And, as I said, wicketkeeping just gave me a bit of a feel for how the other batters played, where they were dismissed, and where they were able to hit sixes. So just those cues from behind the stumps really helped me in just getting a few balls in."
Rahul has now scored 185 runs at an average of 92.5 and is striking at 169.7 in the 2025 IPL season so far.