KL Rahul Talks Of Pain, Being Scarred After ‘Koffee With Karan’

NEW DELHI (ANI) – Indian middle-order batter KL Rahul said that his suspension from the Indian cricket team following a controversial episode of the program “Koffee with Karan” with star all-rounder Hardik Pandya “scarred him massively.”

Notably, back in 2019, both Hardik and KL were handed suspensions from the national team and fined Rs 20 lakh for Hardik’s misogynist comments, 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 having “never being suspended even in school.”

On Nikhil Kamath’s YouTube Channel, KL said, “The interview was a different world altogether. That changed me. I was a very shy, soft-spoken boy growing up. And then I played for India, and for the next three-four years, I became very confident. I had no problem being a huge group of people. People would know I have been in a room with 100 people, because I would talk to everyone.”

The middle-order batter, often criticised for his performances and scoring rates, also talked about online trolling and hate on social media, saying that while he was initially good at facing them, he was subjected to a lot of online abuse later even while not playing, which affected him.

“If I sat, I got trolled, if I stood, I got trolled,” said KL.