Rahul heeds advice from the best

Indian centurion KL Rahul says advice passed on from superstar Indian Premier League teammates AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli has helped him take his game to the next level.

Rahul made a hundred on his ODI debut on Saturday – becoming the first Indian player to do so – to help his side to a nine-wicket victory over Zimbabwe in Harare.

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Chasing 169 to win, the 24-year-old paced his innings superbly, moving to 94 and getting his side within touching distance of victory before lacing a six over long-on to reach three figures and seal the result.

The right-hander was selected for national duties off the back of a strong IPL season with Royal Challengers Bangalore, where he shares a changeroom with Kohli and de Villiers, among a wealth of superstars.

Rahul, who also kept wickets through the tournament, was the third-highest run-scorer (397 runs at 44.11, with four fifties) behind the aforementioned pair throughout a successful season for RCB, in which they were ultimately defeated in the final.

"I spent a lot of time with Virat and AB, talking to them, and asked them questions about what they thought I could do to better, to improve my cricket, and to be successful in the shorter format," he told ESPNCricinfo last week, in the lead-up to the Zimbabwe series.

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"Their ideas and feedback did help me, and once I got a couple of starts in the first two games, I was feeling confident.

"And after I got those fifties, I knew I could go out and express myself and leave all these things behind about the stats and what people say: 'I cannot play the shorter format or I hadn't performed so far'. I just started focusing on how I could get runs in T20."

Rahul's reputation as a longer-format player has in some part come through his success in first-class and even Test cricket; in five matches for India, he already has two hundreds, including a maiden effort against Australia in Sydney in the 2014-15 summer, which followed on from a disappointing debut at the MCG a week earlier in which he made just three and one.

"It’s a great thing to get an ODI hundred, but to get it in my first match is something very special to me," he said after play.

"I always knew I had the game and the skill set to be successful in all three formats, it was just about getting the opportunities and getting the confidence in myself to know that I can perform at any level.

"I learnt a lot from my debut in Australia in the way I wasn't myself there. I wouldn't have been such a confident player that I am today if I had not gotten that kind of failure in my first Test."