KL Rahul will return to his home ground as Delhi Capitals take on the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Thursday. Rahul, who previously featured for RCB, will be featuring at a venue he’s played vast majority of his cricket in, in front of his home fans.
Homecoming for KL Rahul
KL Rahul has had a fine start to IPL 2025, despite missing the first game due to the birth of his first child. The former LSG captain smashed a quickfire cameo against the Sunrisers before following it up with a 77 against the Chennai Super Kings. Now, he will face a sterner test against RCB, who boast the likes of Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in their ranks.
𝑱𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝑲𝑳𝑹 𝒊𝒏 𝑩𝑳𝑹
— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) April 9, 2025pic.twitter.com/B0Ze1w8bdB
While KL is familiar with the conditions at the Chinnaswamy, it has not been a happy hunting ground for the Karnataka superstar. In 14 innings at his home ground, Rahul has only 2 half-centuries, at a strike rate of 137.91 and an average of 34. This includes his time at RCB, where he played 8 innings at his home ground with a high score of 68. He hasn’t scored a 50 against RCB at his home ground.
While those are not poor numbers, they dwarf in comparison to his overall career average, which is a massive 45.48. Overall, however, Rahul enjoys a good record against his former team, scoring 648 runs at an average of 64.80 and a strike-rate of 144. His highest T20 score of 132 also came against the same opposition in Dubai.
KL Rahul record vs RCB
| vs RCB | Metric | vs RCB in Bengaluru |
| 15 | Innings | 6 |
| 648 | Runs | 177 |
| 144 | SR | 141.60 |
| 132* | HS | 47 |
| 46/37 | 4s/6s | 15/8 |
KL Rahul 2.0 at Delhi?
KL Rahul was always known for his versatility and ability to adapt to different positions in the playing XI. However, this season has marked a shift in the Karnataka ace’s approach. While Rahul was constantly under scrutiny for a conservative approach, the 32-year-old has shifted to finding the boundary more regularly this time around. Rahul himself acknowledged the change, and revealed that he had lost fun in hitting boundaries.
“I think somewhere along the way [in my career] I lost that fun of hitting boundaries and hitting sixes. I wanted to take the game deep, deep, deep and that [approach] somehow stuck in my head,” Rahul said in an interview on IPLT20.com.
Rahul will hope that his approach pays dividends when he returns to his home ground on Thursday. With a high-scoring clash likely on the cards, Delhi Capitals will hope that Rahul can continue his boundary streak and get his team over the line again.
