Workhorse Ajinkya Rahane - The eternally convenient Scapegoat

Ajinkya Rahane fields for India

On a balmy monsoon afternoon, India’s one-day captain MS Dhoni won the toss against his Bangladeshi counterpart Mashrafe Mortaza and chose to bat first at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka. Three days before that, the humble hosts had handed a fourth defeat in ODIs to their Big Brothers on the same pitch, and the second under the leadership of Dhoni.

So when Dhoni was asked of any change to the Indian line-up, he announced three of them: Ambati Rayudu was preferred to Ajinkya Rahane, Axar Patel was given the nod for Umesh Yadav and Mohit Sharma’s place had gone to Dhawal Kulkarni.

Hundreds of Indian fans thundered in disbelief; those that had cricket in their hearts, bled. They chose to be deaf to what their national team’s leader had declared only seconds ago. Going by India’s defeat in the previous game – they lost by 79 runs – the last two alterations to the playing XI were acceptable. But Rayudu – or for that matter any batsman – for Rahane struck Indian ears like a death-knell.

An India without Rahane

Rahane was dropped; and India lost again. In a first of its kind, Bangladesh not only beat India consecutively in ODIs, but also clinched a maiden series victory over them; the win over Pakistan two months prior no doubt boosting their confidence for this one.

The three-match series was decided. And this time, a revised target of 200 in 47 overs was chased with immaculate ease – six wickets and nine overs remained in the bank – which was a reinforcement of how they ransacked a 300-score in the previous match.

India’s skipper, at the post-match press conference, explained the dubious choice of excluding Rahane. “We all felt that Ajinkya would do really well as a third opener. Or – we have time now – we can play around with him. He needs pace. We have seen that he plays a lot better when there is pace on a wicket. Whenever he has played at No. 4 or No. 5, if the wicket is slow, then he struggles to rotate the strike freely. Especially when he is just starting his innings, he has a bit of trouble. It is not easy.”

“Play around with him”? Can you toy with someone’s career, MS? Is he a puppet in the hands of the team management? Alright captain, he has a feeble strike rate of 76.80, which in modern-day one-day cricket is below par. Yes, he struggled to 9 off 25 – a strike rate of 36 – on a slow and low track in the first ODI of the series.

But statistics must not be dodged. Rahane averages 39.75 in his last 10 ODI innings at a scoring pace of 74.30 runs per 100 balls. That includes two knocks at rates of 131.67 and 117.86 – only 1.38 runs per innings lower than India’s premier batsman Virat Kohli; the latter sits at 41.13 after this game, and carries a strike rate of 78.66 (only four rungs above Rahane’s). And Kohli, meanwhile, has thrown away four starts to three by Rahane.

A case of misdirected blame?

To compare the shy Rahane with his captain would also not see much contrast, as MS Dhoni himself has got runs at 42.50 during the same stage – including the second game in Dhaka – which he has struck at a not-so-high speed of 83.54. So isn’t Rahane quite close, particularly in terms of mean, to India’s premier one-day specialist (now that Dhoni has quit Tests)?

Let’s look at the numbers of the ‘rockstar’ Ravindra Jadeja. He has had a horrible run of 14.50 runs per innings in the last 10 matches. Normally, a number seven’s runs can be defended by claiming that more often than not, he comes out to bat towards the latter part of the innings. But in half of the above cases, Jadeja entered once each before the 25^th and 30^th over, and thrice prior to the 40^th, not remaining unbeaten even once.

And a batting rate of 83.45 doesn’t make him a hero either. The all-rounder’s bowling too has not yielded dividends, with merely 10 wickets at a wayward 43.30 apiece.

This raises another set of questions. Who would you prefer in the national set-up now that three proper batsmen and one genuine all-rounder have been drawn up together: one who scores few fast runs, or one who has got them in good numbers? Why wasn’t Jadeja shown the door? Has Kohli earned the right of forever being in the playing XI?

Can’t Dhoni’s batting ever be questioned? Celebrated as the game’s best finisher today, he has played only three match-winning knocks in run chases dating back to July 2013. It is time to answer, Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Rahane ranks second among the quartet in terms of average, though bottom whilst striking them. Bringing slow pitches into the picture, as the skipper specified, India’s dropped number four has 296 runs in his kitty on 10 previous occasions – a disappointing average of 29.60 on home grounds – with 77.89 runs every 100 deliveries, a tad greater than his overall ODI rate. Kohli, though, sits way above at a whopping 60.44 and 100, respectively.

Dhoni too has had his bat talking – before he himself did – with 291 runs at 58.20, launching them at 104.30 from his blade. Jadeja lags behind, but not in last position. His 179 runs on such tracks have come at the rate of 35.80 runs every match, struck at 0.06 less runs every 100 balls than Mumbai’s Rahane. Again, when the white ball is thrown into Jadeja’s hands, 15 wickets come at a fair average of 32 runs.

A convenient loss of memory

Statistics conclude. But perhaps Dhoni didn’t take a look at how Rahane devoted himself selflessly to the team’s cause in the preceding solitary Test prior to the ODIs. After two drenched days – the second was washed out – when the match seemed to go nowhere, Rahane joined Murali Vijay at the crease on yet another grey afternoon at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium in Fatullah, stitching together 114 crucial runs in 22.4 overs, at a run rate of 5.03.

He was sixth out at 453, but not before thwarting the home bowlers for 98 off 103. Well Dhoni, look up, the strike rate on a similarly slow surface – in that Test – was 95.15, with 14 fours. The short and slight Rahane perished while looking for a big hit, attempting to loft left-arm off-spinner Shakib al-Hasan but getting bowled between his legs.

Rahane’s ability was questioned on quicker tracks too, in case Dhoni has lost memory on his way from Australia and New Zealand to India to Bangladesh. In the third game of the 2015 World Cup, arch-rivals India and Pakistan clashed in Adelaide. Batting first, India lost centurion Kohli in the 46^th over, whose departure brought out first an out-of-form Dhoni and then, inconsistent as the Pakistan team – or perhaps a more irregular run-getter than a number eleven – ‘Sir’.

Neither move quite shone, with the promoted number five dismissed for 18 from 13 deliveries to a tame top-edged pull to mid-off – a tamer one was reserved for the following match against South Africa – and Jadeja bowled for 3 off 5 by a slower ball from Wahab Riaz.

When Rahane finally stepped in after Dhoni left, as a number seven, with five balls remaining, Riaz cleaned up his stumps too. India’s jersey number 27 faced one ball for no score, perhaps perplexed with the team’s move himself, as Mohammad Shami denied a hat-trick and Rahane was made to resemble a duck out of pond.

At the gigantic MCG next, when Rahane was retained at his usual position of number four with India once again aiming at setting a target after winning the toss, he absolutely exploded, smearing South Africa’s quality fast bowlers Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel to all parts of the park. The slog off the slower ball and elevated drive over mid-off, both going for a six off Steyn, were the highlights of the exemplary and impeccable innings. Rahane’s 79 off 60 set the platform for a big 307, as the African giants fells short by 130 runs.

This was the strike rate, now comes the consistency. On the back of a 73 against England just weeks earlier, Rahane hit two fifties and a dashing 147 in Melbourne, clobbering Mitchell Johnson and others black and blue while simultaneously registering a record 262-run fourth wicket stand with Kohli. In three one-day series before that, he had a century in two of them and a crucial 68 in the other.

When India lost 1-3 in England in August, Rahane registered his name on the Lord’s honours board with a 103, and struck twin half-centuries in vain at the Ageas Bowl. In Wellington, his 118 also bore no fruit, as Brendon McCullum’s fighting triple-century and BJ Watling’s hundred ensured the match ended in a draw.

In December 2013, Rahane first remained undefeated on 51 at the Kingsmead in Durban, and then got himself bowled on 96 by Vernon Philander in pursuit of quick runs for India. It was another magnanimous effort, another self-sacrificing outing by the soft-spoken lad.

Ajinkya Rahane Takes Blessings Of Lord Ganesha At Siddhivinayak Temple At Prabhadevi

Blind leading the blind

India won the third ODI in Dhaka during the Bangladesh tour. Jadeja was dropped, but Kohli was not; playing for pride, India did not choose Rahane for an off-colour Kohli. Instead, the bench was warmed and drinks were borne by the middle-order batsman.

But irony had something in store for him. Eight days after MS Dhoni’s justification of ignoring Rahane from the ODI set-up, headlines of the latter being chosen as India’s captain on the slow and low wickets, typically the ones on which Dhoni questioned his game, in Zimbabwe – for three ODIs and two T20s – emerged.

The accused was asked to lead. Logic was ignored just like rules are flouted on the roads in Indian cities.

Why did Dhoni have to rest, when India next plays a one-day series not before November? With three months of relaxation, he would have anyway had a lengthy break from cricket. Is he not fit and fine enough to carry on for long? Is India’s one-day captain hiding an injury? Was this an attempt to preserve his body until the World T20 in India next year, at least up to which Dhoni intends to carry on?

Such questions – and many more – will remain unanswered, and the decisions cursed. Maybe the recently formed Cricket Advisory Committee, in the company of India’s selectors and the BCCI, needs to have a word about where Indian cricket is heading.

That is the need of the hour, so that no Indian captain, on any soothing afternoon, can manufacture words that amaze and torture cricket fans throughout the country.