Would love to team up with Ben Stokes some day, reveals KL Rahul

KL Rahul, despite being out of favour in Test cricket, is still a force to be reckoned with in T20 cricket and has proven the same with his exploits in the past two editions of the Indian Premier League (IPL) playing for Kings XI Punjab. Rahul, who is currently playing for Karnataka in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, has played along with the likes of Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Mitchell Starc and David Miller in the IPL, but is keen on teaming up with a certain Englishman, who he believes is a phenomenal cricketer. 

"He (Stokes) can bowl, he's a phenomenal fielder, yeah, he's played out there before and he's had a great impact on the teams he's played for. I hope he can play for my team, it'd be great to have him in my team," Rahul was quoted as saying by News18.

Unlike Stokes, a man who Rahul has actually played along with for a very long time now is Jasprit Bumrah and the Karnataka opener had nothing but words of praise for the pacer. The 27-year-old lauded the fierce competitiveness of Bumrah and said that he's always passionate and focused about bowling, even when playing with his own teammates. Rahul also believes that Bumrah will only get better with time and age.

"He (Bumrah) is a phenomenal talent and I've had the privilege and opportunity to play with him even before he had the opportunity to play for his country. We played on the same junior level team and he's always someone that's very determined and dedicated and very passionate about cricket.

"He's someone you don't want to mess with because he bowls the ball at serious speeds and he's a competitor off the field even when we are playing against each other. There's no mercy for the guys who play for the country -- he's always very competitive. The things that he's doing for the country right now is absolutely fantastic and I know he's only going to grow and get better," Rahul said of Bumrah. 

Rahul, now a veteran having played 87 international matches for the country, also spoke about the toughest bowlers he's faced in international cricket, with the opener mentioning the names of both Cummins and Bumrah. 

"I found him (Cummins) very hard to face. Rashid Khan has always got the edge over me -- he has my number a little bit. (There's) Nathan Lyon from Australia (also). All these guys and Bumrah of course," Rahul signed off.