Talking about his career, India batsman KL Rahul on Sunday said that he is always determined to be the best version of himself. Talking about how he deals with success and failures, Rahul said, “No matter what I am doing. I have always been determined to be the best version of myself, physically and mentally.” Rahul had to say this on his doubters, “Shut out the noise. Doubts? Question marks? We all face them, and I am no different. But what matters is how we react to them.”

After a short exile from the Indian cricket team, Rahul came back more determined than ever to prove his quality. He has grown in stature as a top player in the Indian cricket team.

A small blip in his career arose in January 2019 when he was temporarily dropped from the Indian team. While there was chatter in the news and social media on the reasons for his expulsion, Rahul decided to focus his energy on training, perfecting his technique and relying on the will that made him a winner.

He called up his old friends, went to a secluded ground and batted for hours and hours to perfect his batting technique. His friend David Mathias (who he has played with for a long time in Karnataka’s domestic set-up) watched his net sessions, recorded videos, and advised him on how he could improve his technique. Rahul compared the recent videos with those of his performances in 2017-18 to spot the differences between then and now.

He realized that his bat swing was going away from his body, which wasn’t ideal. Fixing that part of his technique helped him get a lot more control on his batting. And the results were there to see as his return to the cricket team saw excellent performances and many positive comments from cricketing legends on his batting technique.

The Red Bull Athlete also focused on his physicality, putting in the time to work on his body and get himself fit for top-level cricket. He reminded himself that although every training session was strenuous, “pain is a luxury” he could enjoy as a successful cricketer.

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Rahul scored a century in his second Test match in 2014, became the first Indian to score an ODI century on debut in 2016, and capped it off with his first T20I century later that year. With his T20I ton, he broke the record for fastest centuries in all three formats of the game having done so in just 20 innings.

Rahul will lead Kings XI Punjab in the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) commencing from September 19. Punjab will take on Delhi Capitals in their first match of the tournament on September 20.