IPL 2025: Delhi's Rahul Shows His Former Team What They're Missing

KL Rahul has racked up 40 half-centuries in 12 seasons in the Indian Premier League but few will have given him more pleasure than the one he made for Delhi on Tuesday against Lucknow Super Giants - the team which dumped him unceremoniously last year.

Rahul cracked an unbeaten 57 to anchor the Capitals' successful chase at Lucknow, sealing a comfortable eight-wicket victory with a six off Prince Yadav.

The 33-year-old captained Lucknow last season but was released after a fallout with the owners, who replaced him with fellow stumper-batsman Rishabh Pant.

While there was no animated celebration, Rahul raised his bat to point to the number one on the back of his Delhi jersey after bringing up his third fifty of the season.

Rahul is now Delhi's most prolific batter this season despite missing their first match, and his former India teammate Cheteshwar Pujara said the batter's maturity was one of the keys to his success.

"He doesn't want to think about the past and wants to enjoy his batting and be in his zone, rather than think about what went wrong when he was playing for the LSG team," Pujara told ESPNcricinfo.

"It's good to move on, which will also help him play well for DC and even for the India team. Because he is someone the India team also relies on, the way he's batting."

Rahul also became the fastest to reach 5,000 runs in the IPL, doing so in 130 innings, five fewer than Australian David Warner.

Former England player Nick Knight believed that the pressure of captaincy can have a mixed impact on players, sometimes hindering their performance. He felt that Rahul's current form might be a result of the freedom he has gained by not being the captain of DC. Knight also suggested that the best player isn't always the best captain.

"Captaincy can do funny things to you - sometimes you thrive on it, sometimes it's a burden. Whether that's had any impact, of not being captain now, just being free and being able to play the match situation," he said.

"We've got this obsession in cricket that the best player has to be captain. That's not always the case, is it? I'm not saying that's the case with KL Rahul, or even Rishabh Pant, but he's batting with so much freedom and looks relaxed in the crease."

In contrast, Pant, whose $3.2 million deal with Lucknow made him the most expensive buy at an IPL auction, made a two-ball duck to prolong his lean run with the new franchise, and Pujara questioned why he was batting down the order at number seven.

"I genuinely don't know what the thought process was," he said. "There's no doubt he should be batting up the order."

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