Kannanur Lokesh Rahul (born 18 April 1992) is an Indian international cricketer.
A right-handed wicket-keeper and batsman, Rahul plays for Karnataka at the domestic level and captains the Lucknow Super Giants in the Indian Premier League.
Rahul was born on 18 April 1992 to K. N. Lokesh and Rajeshwari in Bangalore, Karnataka.
His father Lokesh, who hails from Kannanur in Mangalore, is a professor and former director at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) in Mangalore.
His mother, Rajeshwari, is a professor at Mangalore University.
His father, Lokesh who was a fan of cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, wanted to name his son after Gavaskar's son, but mistook Rohan Gavaskar's name for Rahul.
His mother tongue is Kannada.
Rahul grew up in Mangalore, completing his high school at NITK English Medium School and pre-university at St. Aloysius College.
He started cricket training at the age of 10, and, two years later, started playing matches for both Bangalore United Cricket Club and his club in Mangalore.
At age 18, he moved to Bangalore to study at Jain University and pursue his cricket career.
On 23 January 2023, Rahul married his long-time partner, Indian actress Athiya Shetty, daughter of actor Suniel Shetty, after dating for more than three years.
2010
Rahul made his first-class cricket debut for Karnataka in the 2010–11 season.
In the same season, he represented his country at the 2010 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, scoring 143 runs in the competition.
2013
He made his debut in the Indian Premier League in 2013, for Royal Challengers Bangalore.
During the 2013–14 domestic season he scored 1,033 first-class runs, the second highest scorer that season.
2014
He made his international debut in 2014 against Australia in the Boxing Day Test-match in Melbourne.
Playing for South Zone in the final of the 2014–15 Duleep Trophy against Central Zone, Rahul scored 185 off 233 balls in the first innings and 130 off 152 in the second.
He was named the player of the match and selected to the Indian Test squad for the Australian tour followed.
Returning home after the Test series, Rahul became Karnataka's first triple-centurion, scoring 337 against Uttar Pradesh.
He went on to score 188 in the 2014–15 Ranji Trophy final against Tamil Nadu and finished the season with an average of 93.11 in the nine matches he played.
Rahul made his Test debut in the 2014 Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
He replaced Rohit Sharma and was presented with his Test cap by MS Dhoni.
He managed to score only 3 and 1 on his debut.
In the next test at Sydney where he opened the innings for the first time, and made his maiden international century, scoring 110 runs.
2015
He was named in the 15-man squad for the Indian tour of Bangladesh in June 2015 but withdrew due to Dengue fever.
He returned to the side for the first Test of the Sri Lankan tour after Murali Vijay was ruled out due to injury, scoring his second Test century and winning the Man of the Match award.
During the match, he kept wicket after Wriddhiman Saha was injured.
2016
Two years after his Test debut, Rahul made his One-Day International Debut in 2016 against Zimbabwe.
Later on the same tour, he made his T20I debut.
Rahul is the first and only Indian cricketer to score an ODI century on his debut.
He is the fastest batsman in the world to score an International century across all three formats, taking only 20 innings to achieve this feat.
In July 2016, Rahul was named in the squad for India tour of West Indies.
In the second series test, Rahul scored 158 runs, his then-highest score in test cricket.
In September 2016, he was named in the squad for the home series against New Zealand.
After the first test, he was replaced by Gautam Gambhir due to an injury.
Rahul was selected in the squad against England in the 2016-17 Test series but was injured while training in the nets.
He was ruled out of the third test, but he made his comeback to the team in the fourth test but failed to make an impact.
In the fifth and final test of the series, Rahul went on to make his fourth test ton, scoring his career-best 199 runs.
Rahul was named in the squad to tour Zimbabwe in 2016.
He made his One Day International (ODI) debut against Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club.
