'From Canteen's Dosa and Filter Coffee to His Younger Days': KL Rahul Reflects on Homecoming at Chinnaswamy Stadium: WATCH

It will be over six years since KL Rahul last played a Test match at his home ground at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The star batter has come a long way and remains a senior member of the Indian unit and is likely to get the starting sport against New Zealand in the Test series opener.

Reflecting on his memories of playing at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Rahul looked back to his early days when he was still an up-and-coming cricketer, looking to make his mark in the domestic circuit.

Rahul in a video uploaded by the BCCI’s official handle on X (formerly known as Twitter) revealed, “It’s always special for me to come back here, always special to come back to your home ground and place where you have grown up, played all your cricket.”

He started playing at the iconic venue at 11 years old. Now Rahul, who is 32, still has the same level of excitement when playing at his home ground.

“The feeling for me as an 11-year-old boy who came here first time to play a game, that feeling for me hasn’t changed. I still remember that feeling so many years later as well. So yeah, it’s always special to come back home from the time you leave the dressing room and walk out to the middle. There are so many emotions that go through you, so many memories that come back in 2 minutes,” Rahul expressed.

Reflecting on his early days at the Chinnaswamy stadium, Rahul recalled the times he went to the canteen to have dosa and coffee and the camera cut to visuals of the dishes being made at the canteen.

“I mean from age group cricket to when we were playing Ranji Trophy cricket, that used to be where we used to have breakfast, you know, finish our breakfast, come to the ground and start our training, finish our training and go back there for lunch,” he shared.

“We spent a lot of time in the canteen and the clubhouse behind and at the ground. I haven’t been there in the last year or so. I don’t know if that place has changed now,” he added.

The 32-year-old batter will hope that he can keep his place in the squad and possibly go big with the bat in front of his home crowd. But a young Sarfaraz Khan has come knocking and with his addition to the squad, the middle-order spot is not as set as one would think.