India’s star player KL Rahul, who is often criticised for his performances and scoring rates, opened up on receiving online trolling and hate on social media. The wicketkeeper-batter said that while he was initially good at facing them, he was subjected to a lot of online abuse later on even while not playing, which affected him. “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 entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath’s YouTube Channel.

Rahul’s last international appearance was during the ODI series against Sri Lanka, where he scored 31 runs in two innings. Despite a fine ICC Cricket World Cup last year, in which he scored 452 runs in 10 innings at an average of 75.33, with a century and two fifties, KL was panned for his knock of 66 in 107 balls during the final against Australia, which India lost by six wickets after failing to defend 241 runs against Australia.

In this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, Rahul also attracted some criticism for his strike rate despite finishing among top 10 run-getters, with 520 runs in 14 matches at an average of 37.14, with four fifties. His strike rate of 136.12, lower in comparison to veterans like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and younger stars like Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Rishabh Pant, etc., was a subject of trolling.

Back in 2019, both Hardik and KL were handed suspensions from the national team and fined Rs 20 lakh for Hardik’s misogynist comments in “Koffee With Karan”, before they could return to the team.

While KL and Hardik featured in the ICC Cricket World Cup that year and suspension did not last very long, it still had a bad effect on KL, who admitted of “never being suspended in school”.

(With ANI Inputs)