In January 2022, the Test career of Ajinkya Rahane seemed to have hit an immovable boulder after a below par outing against South Africa. That Rahane failed to find a place in the BCCI central contract too appeared to have magnified the crisis.
But more than a year later, the selectors have handed Rahane a lifeline to resume his journey in the traditional format by including him in India’s squad for the World Test Championship final against Australia. The WTC final will be held at the Oval, London, from June 7.
Even while dropping Rahane for the home series against Sri Lanka, the selectors had made it clear that the door was not really shut on him. But has Rahane done enough to earn a recall to the India side? The answer is not quite easy as his comeback seems to be the result of a confluence of factors.
Iyer's injury paves way for Jinks
The foremost of them could be the absence of injured Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant. Both are recovering from their respective injuries and will not be available for the foreseeable future.
It is tough to see Rahane making it to the India Test squad had those two available for selection, and the mandarins might have thought of adding a dash of experience to the squad through the Mumbaikar.
So, what has Rahane done in the domestic circuit?
Rahane has not precisely blazed the Ranji Trophy circuit having amassed 634 runs from 7 matches at an average of 57.63 with 2 hundreds and a fifty. His hundreds came against Hyderabad (204) and Assam (191) while he made a 51 against Delhi.
Beyond that, the touch Rahane displayed for the Chennai Super Kings in the ongoing IPL 2023 too might have contributed to selectors considering his case, though it is not exactly a correct parameter.
Rahane takes the IPL route to make India comeback
Rahane has so far scored 209 runs from 5 matches for CSK with 2 fifties and his strike-rate has been a scarcely believable 199.04. That Rahane has managed to achieve that strike-rate without so much as slogging might have been taken as an indication of him being in a good batting and mental space.
Rahane indicated as much. “I want to be in the moment, live in the present and take it one match at a time. I want to let my bat do the talking. For me, it is all about timing the ball and playing proper cricketing shots. It is about backing my game rather than trying to copy someone else. It is important to back one's own method,” Rahane had said.
Rahane has often been viewed as a batter who excels in conditions away from home. Just rewind your memory back to that epic Melbourne hundred against Australia in 2020, incidentally his last Test century for India. Since that, Rahane played 28 innings without a hundred, and he managed to score only 3 fifties in this phase.
Rahane's brilliant away record
But that foreign ground proficiency factor remains largely true. Rahane has played 49 Tests away from home, scoring 3223 runs averaging 40.28 with 8 hundreds. At home, Rahane has appeared in 32 Tests amassing 1644 runs at 35.73 with 4 hundreds.
But struggles in England
However, a closer look at his record in England gives us a rather colourless picture. Rahane has played a total of 21 Tests against England making 840 runs at 22.70 with one hundred (away) and in England, the right-hander has bagged 665 runs from 14 Tests at 25.57.
In that sense, it will be interesting to see whether Rahane will actually make it to the playing 11 as the think tank will mull different combinations also involving KL Rahul. The most feasible combination at this stage could be giving Rahul the wicket keeping gloves to accommodate both of them in the middle order, with Shubman Gill opening with Rohit Sharma.
But the calculations are for a later day as he has shown a willingness to reinvent and break the mould of a one-dimensional player around him. Let’s hope that Rahane Mark 2 hit higher skies.
