Kannur Lokesh Rahul (born 18 April 1992) is an Indian international cricketer who plays for the Indian cricket team. KL Rahul was born on 18 April 1992 to KN Lokesh and Rajeshwari in Bangalore. Rahul grew up in Mangalore, completing his high school at NITK English Medium School and pre-university at St. Aloysius College. He started cricket training at the age of 10, and, two years later, started playing matches for both Bangalore United Cricket Club and his club in Mangalore.
At age 18 he moved to Bangalore to study at Jain University and pursue his cricket career. Rahul married his long-time partner, Indian actress–daughter of actor Sunil Shetty, Athiya Shetty on 23 January 2023 after dating for more than three years.
He is a right-handed batter and occasional wicketkeeper. In domestic cricket, he plays for Karnataka and captains Lucknow Super Giants in the Indian Premier League.
He made his international debut in 2014 and scored his maiden Test century in his second Test match. He was the first Indian to score a century on a men’s One Day International debut, and the third Indian cricketer to score a century in all three formats of international cricket.
In January 2022, he worked as a standing captain of the Indian team. He captained amid Indian test team on a tour of Bangladesh in December 2022 after Rohit Sharma was injured.
Rahul made his first-class cricket debut for Karnataka in the 2010–11 season. In the same season, he represented his country at the 2010 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, scoring a total of 143 runs in the competition. He made his debut in the Indian Premier League in 2013, for Royal Challengers Bangalore. KL Rahul was retained as the captain by the Punjab Kings ahead of the 2021 IPL season. KL scored 91(50) in their first fixture against Rajasthan Royals (RR). KL scored match-winning 60*(52) against MI and 91*(57) against RCB and won Man of the Match in both games.
Rahul made his Test debut in the 2014 Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. He replaced Rohit Sharma and was presented with his Test cap by MS Dhoni.
Rahul was named in the squad to tour Zimbabwe in 2016 and made his One Day International (ODI) debut against Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club. Rahul scored an unbeaten 100*(115) on debut, thus becoming the first Indian cricketer to score a century on an ODI debut. He was adjudged the man of the series. He made his Twenty20 International (T20I) debut later in the same tour.
In April 2019, he was named in India’s squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. Rahul scored 361 runs with 2 fifties and 1 hundred in the tournament and finished as India’s third-highest run scorer in the tournament after Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
After Virat Kohli stepped down as Indian T20i captain, Rahul was appointed the Vice-captain of the Indian Cricket Team in T20i as former Vice-captain Rohit Sharma was appointed the new Captain of T20i format. Later, Rahul was appointed ODI vice-captain as well due to a change of captaincy in the white ball format of the Indian team.
