‘Captaining in IPL more exhausting than 10 months of international cricket’: KL Rahul

We may never see KL Rahul captain in the Indian Premier League (IPL) again. While he has been the most consistent run-getter in the tournament, captaincy has taken a huge toll on him. Rahul recently discussed his time as an IPL captain and has said that captaining an IPL season is more exhausting than playing the rest of the 10 months of international cricket.

KL Rahul, who has played in the IPL long enough to understand its rhythms, acknowledges that being captain in this league wears a cricketer down in ways that are not normal. It goes beyond the frantic T20 format alone. It is the tournament’s rapid pace, the never-ending movement, the owners’ expectations, and the constant scrutiny that are all contained within a two-month period. Leading IPL teams was the one task that obviously stretched Rahul, despite the fact that he has handled more roles than the majority of Indian players of his generation.

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KL Rahul reveals his worst IPL season was with LSG

KL Rahul gets candid about IPL captaincy

Across Punjab and Lucknow, Rahul was tasked with holding batting line-ups together while also making tactical calls for teams that were still figuring out their own identity. It isn’t an easy environment. When Rahul says the IPL drains him more than a full year with India, it shows reflects how demanding leadership becomes when the cricket is stacked so tightly and the margins are tiny.

“What I found hard as a captain in the IPL was the number of meetings you needed to have, the number of reviews you needed to do, and the explanations required at the ownership level. I realised that at the end of the IPL, I am more mentally and physically drained than after playing ten months of international cricket,” said KL Rahul in a conversation with Jatin Sapru on the show Humans of Bombay.

Rahul also mentioned that during the IPL, questions are asked that the coaches and captains are not accustomed to in international cricket. Rahul’s captaincy journey has always been shaped by transition. Punjab handed him responsibility at a time when the franchise was desperate to reinvent itself. Lucknow made him their first ever draft pick and then their long term captain, imagining he would anchor both culture and performance. Across both teams, Rahul ended up living through the usual storms that IPL leaders face but rarely speak about.

“Coaches and captains are constantly being asked a lot of questions… Why did you make this change? Why did he play in the XI? Why did the opposition get 200 and we couldn’t even get 120? These are questions we never get asked throughout the year, right? Because the coaches who are there know what’s going on. You are only answerable to the coaches and the selectors, who have all played cricket and understand the nuances of the game,” he added.

KL Rahul captaincy record in IPL

From Lucknow exit to a rebuild at Delhi Capitals

The fracture between Rahul and the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) did not happen overnight. The public outburst from owner Sanjiv Goenka after the loss to Hyderabad only confirmed tension. What followed was a season of awkward silence. No mentions of the captain on the franchise’s social platforms. No sign that the relationship could be fixed. By the time they met in Kolkata ahead of the mega auction, both sides had already accepted that the partnership was over.

Delhi Capitals offered Rahul something he had been missing. Space. He returned to a middle order role, rediscovered fluency, struck at 149.72 and finished with 539 runs in IPL 2025. The main thing was that he wasn’t the captain at DC. It was his best ball striking in seven years. Rahul’s IPL story remains one of rare consistency. Five straight seasons with over 500 runs, the fastest to 5000 IPL runs, hundreds for three different teams and a captaincy record that sits at an even split.

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