KL Rahul opens up about the harsh realities of social media criticism: 'No matter what I did, I faced relentless trolling'

Senior Indian cricketer KL Rahul revealed the challenges he faced from relentless online trolling in the early days of his career and how he managed to overcome it. Making his international debut in 2014, Rahul quickly established himself as a key player across all formats for the Indian team. He even captained the team on occasions when regular skipper Rohit Sharma was unavailable due to rest or injury.

However, the flamboyant wicketkeeper has been widely criticized in the past few overs, especially for his batting approach in the shortest format. He also missed out on the 2024 T20 World Cup squad as the team management went ahead with returning Rishabh Pant as India adopted a fearless batting approach and went on to win the tournament.

After the 2022 T20 World Cup, Rahul faced backlash for his batting approach and was left out of India's T20I plans.

Rahul admitted that a couple of years back, he got trolled for everything he did, which affected him, unlike when he was good at handling it at a young age.

"I used to be good with [handling] trolling. I did not care, but I feel I was much younger back then. And then, a couple of years back, I was exposed to a lot of trolling. If I sat, I got trolled, if I stood, I got trolled," Rahul said on Nikhil Kamath's podcast.

"I am done with the trolling now. For the last one and a half years, I have gotten off Instagram completely. I still go, post and do my things and get out of that place as quickly as possible," he added.

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Rahul has shown versatility in ODIs and Tests and performed well both as an opener and middle-order batter. He also had a decent ODI World Cup, where he scored 452 runs in 10 matches at an astonishing average of 75.33. However, his sluggish 66-run knock off 107 balls in the summit clash against Australia again put him under the scanners.

He also recently slipped down in the pecking order in the leadership group as young Shubman Gill was elevated to the vice-captain's role in ODIs over the senior batter.

Nothing got me expelled from school: KL Rahul

In the same podcast, Rahul also talked about his school life, Rahul said he was never ever punished in school and suspension after Koffee with Karan episode was the first time he faced such thing.

"I did mischievous things in schools like chota mota (small things), but nothing to get me expelled from school or my parents have had to come. That was my first, and then you realise how bad it is," he said.

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