Although Rahul and Hardik participated in the ICC Cricket World Cup that year and the suspension did not last very long, it still had a negative impact on the wicket-keeper-batter. Rahul said he was a shy boy as a child and was never suspended from school.

According to Wisden on entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath’s YouTube channel, Rahul said, “The (Koffee With Karan) interview was a whole other world. It changed me. I was a very shy, soft-spoken boy as a kid. And then I played for India and over the next three-four years, I became very confident. I had no problem being around a large group of people. People knew I was in a room of 100 people because I was talking to everyone.”

“Not anymore, because the interview made me extremely insecure. Being suspended from the team… I was never suspended at school, never punished. I just never knew how to deal with it,” he added.

The middle-order batsman, who is often criticised for his performances and strike rates, also spoke about the attacks and hate speech on social media, saying that while he coped well with it initially, he later faced a lot of online abuse even outside of playing time, which affected him.

“I used to be good at dealing with trolls,” he said. “I didn’t mind, but I feel like I was much younger then. And then a few years ago, I got trolled a lot. If I sat, I got trolled, if I stood, I got trolled,” Rahul said.

Rahul’s last international appearance was during the ODI series against Sri Lanka, where he scored 31 runs in two innings.

Despite an excellent performance in the ICC Cricket World Cup last year, where he scored 452 runs in 10 innings at an average of 75.33, including a century and two fifties, Rahul was criticised for his knock of 66 in 107 balls in the final against Australia. India lost the final by six wickets after failing to defend 241 runs against Australia.

In this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, Rahul was also criticised for his strike rate despite being among the top 10 run-getters with 520 runs in 14 matches at an average of 37.14 and four fifties. His strike rate of 136.12, which is lower as compared to veterans like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and younger stars like Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Rishabh Pant etc., was the subject of trolling.