‘Not too far away’: KL Rahul opens up on retirement plans

India’s batter KL Rahul has opened up on his plans to retire from international cricket months after celebrating his 32nd birthday.

The right-handed batter admitted being hit with anxiety after realising that he did not have long to play international cricket for his country.

However, Rahul asserted that he was not insecure about retiring from professional cricket.

“There is no insecurity, but there is a feeling that all this ends, and for me it ends very quickly. If you are fit enough, you can play till 40. That is the maximum someone has played. Yes, there is MS Dhoni, who is 43 and is still playing. You can play the IPL and all of that, but not at the international level for too long,” KL Rahul said during a podcast with an Indian YouTuber.

According to the Indian batter, the shelf life of athletes is shorter and they have to make the most of the time they get in their career.

“There is a fear and realisation that the shelf life is really small for an athlete, and you need to make the most of it within whatever time you have,” said Rahul.

Read more: KL Rahul reflects on battling trolling and adapting to criticism

The 32-year-old wicketkeeping batter revealed becoming anxious when he turned 30 and being hit with the feeling that he had only 10 more years left in his career.

“For me, the anxiety was when I hit 30. I could see the end of the tunnel. Till I was 29, I could not see that. Some weird thing happened on my 30th birthday. I could see I have 10 more years to play cricket, and that gave me anxiety, and that is the first time I felt like ‘This comes to an end at some point.’ All I have done all my life is ‘Cricket, Cricket, Cricket,’ without imagining this comes to an end. Now I can see it. It is not too far away,” KL Rahul added.

It is worth noting here that the wicketkeeping batter made his international debut for India in 2014 and has since become an integral part of his country’s ODI and Test sides.

The batter has scored almost 8,000 international runs across all formats for India, including 17 centuries and 54 half-centuries in  199 innings.