Debut and early career (2014–2021) 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. He was named in the 15-man squad for the
Indian tour of Bangladesh in June 2015 but withdrew due to
dengue. He returned to the team 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. 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. Rahul scored an unbeaten 100*(115) on debut, thus becoming the first Indian cricketer to score a century on an ODI debut. He was named the man of the series. He made his
Twenty20 International (T20I) debut later in the same tour. Rahul got out on a
golden duck on his T20I debut as India lost the first T20I against Zimbabwe. Rahul was named in T20I squad for the
tour of West Indies in 2016, where he made his first T20I century of just 46 balls and ended up scoring an unbeaten 110 off just 51 balls. He became the first player to score a T20I century while batting at number four in a one-run defeat while in pursuit of 246, the highest T20I run chase at that time. In his 20th international innings, Rahul became the fastest batsman to have scored centuries in all three formats, surpassing the record of
Ahmed Shehzad, who took 76 innings. On 3 July 2018, Rahul scored his second T20 International ton against
England. He is also the first Indian batsman to be dismissed hit-wicket in T20Is. On 11 January 2019,
Hardik Pandya and Rahul were suspended by the
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) following misogynistic comments they made on the Indian talk show
Koffee with Karan earlier in the month. They were both sent home ahead of the ODI series
against Australia and the fixtures of
India's tour to New Zealand. On 24 January 2019, after lifting the suspension on Pandya and Rahul, the BCCI announced that Rahul would re-join the squad for India A matches. In April 2019, he was named in
India's squad for the
2019 Cricket World Cup. He played at number 4 in the first two games but got back to opening the innings alongside
Rohit Sharma when
Shikhar Dhawan was ruled out of the rest of the tournament due to injury. Overall, Rahul scored 361 runs with two fifties and one hundred in the tournament and finished as India's third-highest run scorer in the tournament after
Rohit Sharma and
Virat Kohli. Due to lack of form in the Test format, Rahul was dropped from the squad for the home Tests against South Africa. However, he remained in the limited-overs teams. In December 2019, in the first T20I match against the
West Indies, Rahul scored his 1,000th run in T20I cricket. He scored 62 (40) in the first T20I against West Indies. He scored 91 (56) in the third T20I, for which he was the Man of the Match. He scored his 3rd ODI century in the 2nd ODI against West Indies. In the 2-match T20I series against Sri Lanka, Rahul scored 45 in the first match and 54 in the second T20I. In January 2020, Rahul made 80 (52) batting at number five in the second ODI against Australia and was rewarded as the man of the match. In India's
tour of New Zealand in 2019–20, Rahul was declared man of the series in the five-match T20I series for scoring 224 runs at an average of 56. He was also the stand-in captain in the 5th T20I after
Rohit Sharma suffered a hamstring injury during the 1st innings. In the ODI series against New Zealand, he scored 88* (64) in the first ODI and scored his fourth ton in ODIs, 112 (113) in the third ODI. In October 2020, Rahul was named as
India's
vice captain for the ODI and T20I series
against Australia. Rahul had a moderate ODI and T20I series against Australia. He made 77 against Australia in the second ODI and 51 in the first T20I. India lost the ODI series 2–1 but won the T20I series by the same margin. Rahul was included in the test squad for the
Border-Gavaskar Trophy but was not picked in the playing XI for the first two Tests. He injured himself during practice and was ruled out of the remaining part of the tour. As a result, he also missed the
home Test series against England in February 2021. He returned to the national team for the T20I and ODI series against England. There was a dip in his form in the T20I series. He returned to form in the ODI series scoring a match-winning 62* and was involved in a 100-run partnership with debutant
Krunal Pandya who scored a fifty. He continued his form by scoring 108 runs in the second ODI and was involved in another 100-run partnership with Rishabh Pant. Rahul was named to India's test squad for their
tour of England in 2021. As
Shubman Gill and
Mayank Agarwal were injured, Rahul opened alongside
Rohit Sharma. In the first test at Trent Bridge, Rahul scored 84 and 26. He scored 129 (250) at Lords and was awarded the man of the match in the second Test. Rahul displayed excellent technical skills for batting in England, including playing the ball late and leaving the ball well. Rahul scored 315 runs in eight innings of four matches played and was the second-highest run scorer for India in the tour behind Rohit Sharma.
Vice-captaincy (2021–22) In September 2021, Rahul was named to India's squad for the
2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. He was the highest run scorer for India in the tournament, scoring 194 runs including three consecutive fifties. He also scored the tournament's joint fastest fifty in just 18 balls against
Scotland. After Virat Kohli stepped down as T20I captain, Rahul was appointed the vice-captain of the team in T20Is as former vice-captain Rohit Sharma was appointed the new captain of T20I format. Later, Rahul was appointed ODI vice-captain as well due to the change of captaincy. In December 2021, Rahul was named as India's Test vice-captain for the
away series against South Africa after India's regular vice-captain
Rohit Sharma was ruled out of the series. Rahul was also named as the ODI captain for the
One Day series of the same tour as India's regular ODI captain
Rohit Sharma was ruled out of the series due to a hamstring injury. In the first test match against South Africa in December 2021, he scored 123 in India's first innings and 23 in India's second innings. For this performance, he was awarded the Man of the Match award. In the
second test against South Africa in January 2022, Rahul
captained India for the first time in Test cricket and became the 34th Test captain of India. He scored a half-century on his captaincy debut. Despite his best efforts, Rahul couldn't lead the team to victory, and India lost the second Test by seven wickets. In the first ODI against South Africa, he made his debut in ODI captaincy and became the 26th ODI captain of India. However, India lost the series 3–0 to South Africa. In February 2022, during the second ODI of India against the West Indies, Rahul scored 49 (48) and completed 6000 runs in international cricket across all formats. In the same ODI, Rahul sustained an upper left hamstring strain and was ruled out of the next ODI as well as the upcoming T20Is series against the West Indies. Rahul was named captain for the
South African tour of India in June, but was later ruled out of the series due to a groin injury. After a successful sports hernia surgery, Rahul came back to the team and was named captain for the
India Tour of Zimbabwe in August. Rahul was the stand-in captain for the team during the last match played by team India in the
2022 Asia Cup against
Afghanistan. Due to poor form, in February 2023 he was removed from the Test vice-captaincy, with his spot in the team questioned.
Recent career (2023–present) Rahul made his return to cricket in Asia Cup 2023 against
Pakistan. Rahul scored an unbeaten century on his return, scoring 111 off 106 balls. Following a successful Asia Cup, Rahul was named in the squad for
2023 Cricket World Cup. Ahead of the World Cup, Rahul was named as the captain for first two ODIs for the series against
Australia. Rahul started his World Cup 2023 campaign scoring an unbeaten 97 against
Australia in a tricky chase after India lost 3 wickets at the score of 2. In the final match of the group stage of the World Cup, against the
Netherlands at the
M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Rahul recorded the fastest century by an Indian batter in a World Cup, when he reached the milestone in 62 deliveries. He coincidentally broke the record held by
Rohit Sharma who hit a century earlier of 63 deliveries in the tournament during India's match against Afghanistan. In the
final against Australia, Rahul top scored in India's first innings with 66 runs off 107 balls as they struggled to 240 and were comfortably defeated by 6-wickets. KL Rahul's slow innings in the finals was heavily criticised by experts and fans. On 30 November, Rahul was announced as the captain for the 3 match ODI series against South Africa after the regular ODI captain
Rohit Sharma had taken a break following an intense 2023 Cricket World Cup schedule. Rahul subsequently, won the series 2-1 making him the second captain after
Virat Kohli to win an ODI series in South Africa. In December 2023, during the first test match of the series between
India and South Africa, Rahul scored his 8th test match century helping India to post a challenging first innings score of 245 during challenging batting conditions. He top scored that innings with 101 runs with the second highest score only being 38 runs. Despite his efforts, India ended up losing the match by an innings and 32 runs. Rahul scored 86 and 22 in defeat in the first test of
England's 2023–24 tour India. However, he missed the rest of the series through injury. Rahul was axed from the 2024 T20 World Cup squad. Rahul made his comeback to the ODI team post-injury against
Sri Lanka where he scored 31 and 0 in the first two ODIs and was dropped from the final ODI of the series, India ended up losing the series 2-0, their first bilateral loss against Sri Lanka since 1997. Rahul was named in the squad for the 2-match
Test series against Bangladesh in September 2024. Rahul scored a quick-fire 68 off just 62 deliveries in the rain-affected second test to help India secure a victory. Rahul was named in the Test squad against New Zealand where he failed to scored in the first test, making scores of 0 and 12 and was dropped from the starting 11 for the remaining series. Following a failed series against New Zealand he was named in the India A squad and main squad for the
Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Rahul started the series as an opener and managed to score two half centuries later he was sent to one-down in the last two matches. He ended the series as the third highest scorer for India, scoring 276 runs at an average of 30.66. Rahul was selected in the ODI squad for the
home series against England and
Champions Trophy 2025. He was later selected in the test series against England in June and July, where he had a good series scoring 532 runs at an average of 58.00 and 2 centuries and 2 half centuries in 5 matches. In the first test of the
two-match home series against West Indies, Rahul went on to make his 11th Test hundred - his second at home since 2016. In November 2025, Rahul was appointed stand-in captain of the Indian
One Day International (ODI) team for the home series against
South Africa, following the absence of regular captain
Shubman Gill due to injury. Under his leadership, India won the three-match ODI series 2–1. ==Indian Premier League==