'If I could have played till the end...': KL Rahul on his 'regret' in WC final

KL Rahul on Friday opened up on one of the biggest regrets of his cricketing career and his time with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru RCB franchise in IPL 2024Speaking on a video on Ravichandran Ashwins Youtube channel on Thursday Rahul said that his regret was not being able to stick around on the crease for long and taking his team to a good score in the finalsThe World Cup final against Australia I was stuck in the moment whether to take down Mitchell Starc or just play him as it was reversing bowling in tough angle in that confusion I ended up nicking it if I could have played till the end it could have been 30plus runs amp probably World Cup in our handsthat is what I regret Rahul saidIn the final India could score only 240 runs in their 50 overs after being put to bowl first by Australia with KL 66 Virat Kohli 54 and Rohit Sharma 47 playing crucial innings Australia was 473 at one point during the runchase but Travis Heads 137 took the Aussies to a sixwicket win in AhmedabadKL had a great tournament with the bat and gloves though His versatility while batting glovework and DRS calls garnered him acclaim In 10 innings he scored 452 runs at an average of 7533 with a century and two fifties His best score was 102KL also revealed to Ashwin what his conversations were with star batter Virat Kohli when he signed his IPL deal with RCB back in 2013 He said that playing for the franchise was always his dream and it was a massive learning experience for himVirat was there ITC Gardenia coach Ray Jennings and other support staff were also there and Virat only said Would you want to sign this contract and play for RCB I was like Are you kidding It was always my dream And then he said I am just kidding It is not an option just sign this contract I signed and Virat said It is going to be a crazy ride You are going to enjoy a lot in the next couple of monthsThe things that I learned at RCB in those two monthsI mean the amount of time it would have taken me to be the player by playing just Ranji Trophy would have probably taken it 78 seasons During those two months in the IPL I gained so much knowledge and experience and everything was fastforwarded he addedAlso ReadBig investments disappointing returnsKL represented RCB in the 2013 and 2016 seasons playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad SRH from 201415 for Punjab Kings from 20182021 and for LSG from 2022 till now onIn 19 matches and 14 innings for RCB he scored 468 runs at an average of 3791 with a strike rate of 14530 He scored four halfcenturies with the best score of 68The righthanded batter said that he would have liked to finish his IPL career with RCB after playing only for them but the beauty of IPL took him to different teams He also opened up on how excited he was to create a new team and culture with LSG when he was bought by the franchise in 2022I would have also loved to play for Bangalore I had started there I would have liked to finish there and that was there in my head But the beauty of IPL is that you get to go into different teams with different players said KLWhen the two new teams came in and I had an opportunity to go there thats what excited me To start a franchise from scratch To create my own team my own culture It has been fun and hopefully I can finish there he concludedIn 30 matches for LSG KL has scored 1094 runs at an average of 4208 with two centuries and seven fifties His best score is 103 Currently his team is at the fifth spot in the points table with three wins three losses and six pointsWith agency inputs