KL Rahul says he wanted to be selfish following his suspension over Koffee With Karan controversy

New Delhi, June 14: India cricketer KL Rahul has had his international career full of ups and downs. The talented Karnataka batsman has been on the path of redemption ever since the infamous Koffee With Karan episode in early 2019.

The wicketkeeper-batsman along with his teammate Hardik Pandya suffered suspension for their sexist remarks and worked hard to secure their spot in the national side.

While Pandya has always been the team's first-choice all-rounder, Rahul had to deliver to secure his spot in the side due to the competition. The right-handed batsman has now revealed that he even became selfish on his return following suspension and that made things worse for him.

Speaking on the latest episode of India Today Inspiration, the 28-year-old said following his return from suspension he wanted to be selfish and was focused only on individual performance, but that didn't help him. The initial failures helped him introspect and he understood the importance of being a team player.

"A lot of credit for my consistent performance goes to how differently I started thinking after 2019. With this suspension and with all that happened I was tempted or I was in a way wanted to be selfish and play for myself and I failed when I started focusing on myself and individual scores. So I told myself I need to go out and do what the team wants me to do," KL Rahul said.

Rahul had a decent second-half in 2019 and even this year, the talented cricketer looked in sublime form. He even donned the wicketkeeper's gloves in the limited-overs format as a replacement to Rishabh Pant and did just fine. He now credits the change in his mindset for his consistent performance since the 2019 World Cup.

"We all know our careers are not too long and I realised after 2019 that I probably have good 12 or 11 years left in me and I need to dedicate all my time and energy towards becoming a player and team man so that mind-shift really helped and took a lot of pressure of me when I started focusing on wanting to do better for the team and be part of champion teams and make a difference in the game," Rahul added further.

As a wicketkeeper, Rahul has scored 303 runs in five innings at an average of 75.75 and a strike rate of 114.77 in ODIs. While opening the batting in T20Is, he has amassed 224 runs at an average of 56.00 and a strike rate of 144.51.