KL Rahul Calls RCB 'Family' in an Emotional Twitter Exchange

Updated - 04 Feb 2018, 02:28 PM

KL Rahul
KL Rahul (Credits: Twitter)

Indian batsman KL Rahul was the talk of the IPL auction, which was held in Bangalore in January.

The right-hand batsman, who is currently in South Africa, was roped in by Kings XI Punjab for INR 11 crore. Apart from being a sharp fielder, the Karnataka cricketer can double as the wicket-keeper if the need be.

KL Rahul, M. Chinnaswammy Stadium, Bengaluru, South Africa Vs India,
KL Rahul is eyeing on South African tour. Photo Credit: PTI.

The 25-year old has played 23 Test matches for India, scoring 1458 runs at an average of 40.50 and took the field in blue on 22 occasions in limited-overs cricket. Rahul’s previous team, Royal Challengers Bangalore sent out a special message to him, Chris Gayle and Shane Watson.

Rahul bids goodbye to RCB

The Windies opener, who sizzled in red and gold, will take the field alongside Rahul in the 11th edition of the IPL. He was bought by the Punjab camp for INR 2 crore, after going unsold in the first two rounds of the bidding war.

Rahul, in reply, thanked the RCB side and, the fans for their constant support over the years and added that he would miss the family.

Sunil Gavaskar India South Africa KL Rahul
Sunil Gavaskar feels India should experiment with KL Rahul as wicketkeeper so that Ajinkya Rahane get included in the third Test. Image Courtesy: Getty Images

There were a few questions over Punjab’s tactics, as they went for an under-fire Gayle. Virender Sehwag, who is the managing director of the Punjab unit, backed the decision. 

“Simply having him (Gayle) in your side means a lot. Being an opening batsman, Gayle can prove to be a danger to any opposition.”

Sehwag also hinted that the Caribbean explosive batter might not regularly feature in the set-up. He went on to add,

“Gayle’s brand value speaks for himself and how effective he is in this format. We decided to bring in Gayle as a backup option for the opening slots.”

IPL 2018, Ben Stokes, Yuvraj Singh, Quinton de Kock, Chris Gayle
The initial hints reflected Chris Gayle couldn’t be picked in the retention policy list for the upcoming IPL 2018. Photo Credit: IPL.

Kings XI Punjab squad:

Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Ravichandran Ashwin, Andrew Tye, Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis, Karun Nair, Mujeeb Zadran, Ankit Singh Rajpoot, David Miller, Mohit Sharma, Barinder Singh Sran, Yuvraj Singh, Christopher Gayle, Ben Dwarshuis, Akshdeep Nath, Manoj Tiwary, Mayank Agarwal, Manzoor Dar, Pardeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar.

Here is the newsfeed:

KL Rahul applauds Ranveer Singh’s performance as Allaudin Khilji in Padmavat

IPL 2018: Kings XI Punjab Release List of Probable Captains

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