Lokapally joined the newspaper
Patriot in 1981, with his first article about the cricketer
Bishan Singh Bedi. Bedi was impressed with the work, and Lokapally quoted this as a motivation to work as a cricket journalist. He resigned from
Patriot in 1986 and later joined
The Hindu Group (writing for its publication
The Hindu and
Sportstar), specializing in sports. He said that he felt "fortunate" to work with the company. He said, "My interest in writing came because of my passion to play and watch sports. And what better in life than to get paid for pursuing my hobby?
The Hindu gave me assignments in India as well as overseas and it was wonderful to write about cricket from distant venues of the world." A
Delhi-based journalist, he married Sunanda, with whom he has a son named Akshay. According to
ThePrint, Lokapally has been considered in the media as one of India's most respected writers on cricket, and according to Sportskeeda, he is regarded as one of the most well-known sport journalist of India. He has written five books related to
cricket in India. The first is
The Virender Sehwag Story, chronicling the life of the former cricketer
Virender Sehwag, which was published by UBS Publishers' Distributors on 3 May 2004. In an interview to
Yahoo! Cricket, he admitted that he was happy with his collaboration with the company as it has given him "confidence to look at more opportunities". His next two books are
World Cup Warriors: The Boys in Blue (2019) and
Speed Merchants: The Story of Indian Pace Bowling 1886 to 2019 (2020). Lokapally co-wrote the cricketer
Rohit Sharma's biographical book
The Hitman: The Rohit Sharma Story in 2020 as well. == Bibliography ==