Indian cricket team batter KL Rahul was ruled out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 due to injury but made a brilliant return in the Asia Cup that year. He was quite impressive in the Super 4s match against Pakistan as he slammed 111 runs off just 106 deliveries with the help of 12 fours and 2 sixes. Rahul reached the milestone off the bowling of Naseem Shah and celebrated by raising his bat in the air. However, he had his back towards the dressing room and that was not something that pleased then-coach Rahul Dravid. In a recent interview, Rahul revealed his conversation with Dravid and how he was not even supposed to play the game against Pakistan but an injury to Shreyas Iyer changed the story.
"I'll tell you a story. So this was right after my injury. I was not supposed to play this game either. Shreyas Iyer was supposed to play, but he got a back spasm, and I ended up playing this game. For those four months, that I was out, through that hard phase, every morning I woke up and said the same thing, 'I'll be the best player in the world'," KL Rahul said on the ‘2 Sloggers' Podcast.
“I motivated myself. The dressing room was on this side, I turned my back to the dressing room and then this celebration. Rahul Dravid, the coach, got a little upset. 'Why did you turn your back on the dressing room?' I said, 'No sir, I meant no disrespect'. In the four to five months that I was out, I had a dream that there was a statue of me with me celebrating like that,” he added.
Rahul also revealed how amused Dravid was when he heard about the 'statue' dream.
"He said, 'Statue tera? Mera nahi bana, tera statue? (I don't have a statue, but you have?)" This is why this is very special to me," said Rahul.