One of the most viral images of last year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) was KL Rahul being at the receiving end of a spray from Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) owner Sanjeev Goenka after a heavy defeat. Rahul was LSG captain then, and with LSG not qualifying for the playoffs, it wasn’t a happy ending for him or the team.

When announcing their retentions before the IPL 2025 mega auction, Rahul didn’t stay with LSG. In a thinly veiled criticism, Goenka said, “We wanted players with the mindset to win, who would put the team winning above their personal aspirations.”

Rahul went to Delhi Capitals in the auction, and life came a full circle when he made 57 not out off 42 as the Axar Patel-led side comfortably chased down LSG’s total of 159/6 at their home ground in Lucknow. He hadn’t played in the first game between the two, to be there for the birth of his daughter, and fans had to wait for the return fixture for the much-awaited face-off between Rahul and his former team.

There was no question who came out on top in the clash. Rahul’s innings not only helped Delhi Capitals win, it solidified their march towards a top-two finish in the IPL 2025 league phase.

In this IPL, Rahul has unveiled a reinvented version of himself. Since IPL 2019, he had been batting with a view to minimising risk, and batting long. He had the most runs of any batter from IPL 2019 to IPL 2024, but he also had the most balls faced. More tellingly, he had the lowest strike rate among the top 10 run-getters in that period.

That method has been binned in IPL 2025, and emphatically so. After Delhi Capitals’ win against CSK in Chepauk, Rahul told Kevin Pietersen, Delhi Capitals’ mentor, on iplt20.com about his changed approach.

“I worked really hard on my white-ball game in the last year or so. Big shoutout to Abhishek Nayar, I’ve worked a lot with him,” Rahul said. “We’ve spent hours and hours together talking about my white-ball game and how I can be better. We worked hours and hours together in Mumbai.

“I think somewhere along the way I lost that fun of hitting boundaries and hitting sixes. I wanted to take the game deep, deep, deep and that somehow stuck in my head… So back to enjoying my cricket, not thinking too much about the game, not thinking about taking it deep – none of that stuff. Just see ball and try and be aggressive, try and put pressure on the bowler and the opposition, and just enjoy hitting boundaries.”

It’s not just words. Rahul’s strike rate this season after 7 games is north of 150. In the previous five years, the highest strike rate he had was 138.8. But this year has been a throwback to IPL 2016 and IPL 2018 (he missed the year in between with injury).

In IPL 2016, Rahul batted with elan and panache in the middle order for RCB, striking at 146.5. In 2018, he moved to the top of the order for Punjab and was in blistering form with 158.4. And he did that in the pre-impact player era. IPL 2025 has been a mix of those two seasons, sometimes batting at the top, sometimes in the middle, but always with intent.

Ironically enough, the innings against LSG had Rahul batting more in his accumulator role. Why it was different now than earlier though, was that Rahul was batting in a chase, and a modest one at that. Getting his team to 160 safely is something he could do on autopilot.

The Delhi Capitals bowlers had gifted Rahul with a chase that was a throwback to his Punjab and LSG days, so in a delicious twist of fate, Rahul got to play in the manner he was castigated for by his previous owner, against his current team, and win the game.

However, he played the situation this time, and has done so all through this tournament, without losing his ability to be very aggressive. As his overall strike rate in IPL 2025 indicates, Rahul has rediscovered the higher gears in his game. But that doesn’t mean he can’t go back to his earlier method when the situation warrants it, and he chose the perfect stage to show it.

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