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India batter KL Rahul has joined Delhi Capitals (DC) ahead of the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) season.
DC posted the video of KL's arrival at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. On arriving at the pitch, KL pulled out his famous 'Kantara' movie celebration, which he had done during the match against eventual champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in his home state of Karnataka. After playing an aggressive 93* run knock in 53 balls in chase of 164 set by RCB, KL, usually a calm, collected and reserved figure in the dressing room, was seen unusually animated and aggressive, thumping his chest and pointing towards the ground and at his jersey as if saying that it (M Chinnaswamy Stadium) is his territory. He moved his bat on the pitch in a circular way and aggressively tapped it on the ground. Later, he revealed the celebration to be inspired by the 2022 Kannada movie, Kantara. Making a reference to KL's words after that win, DC posted, "Ye tera ground hai, Rahul. Welcome back home." https://x.com/DelhiCapitals/status/2036646755413225841 In the last season, KL was at his most aggressive in years, scoring 539 runs in 13 matches at an average of 53.90, with a strike rate of almost 150, including a century and three fifties. He was DC's top run-getter and overall ninth-highest. He was also DC's leading six-hitter, with 21 maximums. In 145 matches, KL has scored 5,222 runs in 136 innings of his IPL career, which has seen him play for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), RCB, Punjab Kings and finally DC. These runs have come at an average of 46.21 and a strike rate of 136.02, including five centuries and 40 fifties. He was the Orange Cap winner back in the 2020 season with PBKS, scoring 670 runs in 14 innings with a century and five fifties. He will be aiming to get as close as possible to the 6,000-run mark, if not touch it. If he reaches this milestone, he will be the fifth batter after Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner to reach the milestone. Currently, he is the seventh-highest run-getter in the competition's history. DC will start off against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 1 at Lucknow. (ANI)
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