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KL Rahul produces career-best year in Tests; How has IND star brought back his best game?



KL Rahul for India - (Source : AFP)KL Rahul for India - (Source : AFP)

On Friday, October 3, KL Rahul slammed the first century for India in the new WTC cycle and also ended his run drought at home by bringing up only his second Test hundred. KL Rahul is in the form of his life, and interestingly, with the century against West Indies, the 33-year-old also produced his career-best calendar year in Test cricket.

KL has already scored 649 runs in just seven Tests and surpassed his previous best year of 633 runs in 2017. It took KL Rahul eight years to beat his previous best, but nonetheless, the right-handed batter is enjoying a great time in the red-ball cricket and look at the possible reasons behind his golden patch with the bat.

Let's look at KL Rahul's performance every year

Year
Innings
Runs
Average
Strike-Rate
50/100
201424230.760/0
2015825231.5047.900/2
2016953959.8862.021/2
20171463348.6958.889/0
20181246822.2859.011/1
2019511022.0039.710/0
20211046146.1043.121/2
2022813717.1236.141/0
2023514328.6051.810/1
20241649335.2157.524/0
20251364949.9250.032/3

Career Peak: 2016-2017

KL Rahul's peak years were his initial years in his career, where the right-handed batter averaged nearly 60 in 2016 and 50 in 2017. Further, in these two years, he displayed consistency and slammed 10 fifties and a solitary century.

Worst Phase: 2022-2024

Rahul's worst Test phase came from 2022-2024, where the right-handed batter even struggled to touch an average of 40. In 2022 and 2023, Rahul only averaged 18 and 29, whereas in 2024, his performance improved slightly and average jumped to 35.21. 

In these three years, Rahul only managed to score five fifties and a solitary Test century.

How did KL Rahul return to form in 2025?

1. Stability in batting order

If we look at KL's career, then the right-handed batter has always put the team above himself and in order to do so, his position in the batting order has shuffled a lot. However, under Gambhir, Rahul's batting order has been fixed and the right-handed batter is aware that he will only open the innings alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal. Thus, the 33-year-old trains and practice in a similar fashion.

If we shed light on KL's prime years in 2016 and 2017, then the right-handed batter only opened the innings, whereas in the rest of the years, his batting order was consistency shuffled. 

Year
Batting Position
Runs
2014No. 3, No. 64
2015Opening252
2016Opening539
2017Opening633
2018Opening, No. 3, 468
2019Opening
110
2021Opening
461
2022Opening137
2023Opening, No. 6
143
2024Opening, No. 3, No. 4, No. 6
493
2025Opening
649

If we look at the year 2018, then a seed was sown than KL can also bat in the middle-order. Further, since 2023, the management constantly shuffled with KL's batting position,  but eventually, they realised the mistake and fixed KL to open the innings and it produced immediate results. 

2. Converting good starts in big scores

One of the major things that have improved for KL Rahul is his conversion rate. Earlier, he has always got the starts, but failed to convert those starts or fifties into big totals. However, it is not the case in 2025, KL has already scored three centuries in this year, the most for him in any calendar year.

Rahul had a great 2016 and 2017, but even in those years, he had 10 fifties and only a single century, which indicates that he got the runs, but never converted those fifty-plus scores to a big hundred.

3. No Pressure to play all-format

Earlier, KL Rahul was a go to player for India across formats, but at the moment, he is out of scheme of things in the shortest format of the game, which helps him focus more on Test cricket.

India has played few ODIs in 2025 and more T20is as the World Cup is scheduled for next year, which has given KL more time to practice red-ball cricket.

Now since, KL was out of Asia Cup squad, he featured for India A against Australia A and slammed a century, which boosted his confidence to perform at home.