Ajinkya Rahane and wife Radhika Dhopavkar blessed with baby boy

Team India batter Ajinkya Rahane and his wife Radhika Dhopavkar have been blessed with a baby boy. The former announced the same through a social media post on Wednesday (October 5).

Taking to his official Instagram handle, Rahane revealed that he and Radhika welcomed a baby boy this morning. His post read:

“This morning Radhika and I welcomed our baby boy into the world. Both Radhika and the baby are doing well and are completely healthy.

“We’d like to thank you for all your love and blessings!” the former India Test vice-captain’s post further read.

This is the couple’s second child. Their daughter Aarya was born in October 2019. The cricketer continues to share cute pictures and videos with his daughter on his official social media platforms.

The 34-year-old was recently seen in action during the 2022 Duleep Trophy. The cricketer was the captain of the West Zone team that lifted the trophy by defeating South Zone in the final in Coimbatore towards the end of last month.

Rahane scored an unbeaten 207 off 264 balls in the quarter-final against North East Zone in Chennai. However, he could not replicate his batting form in the subsequent matches. The right-hander was dismissed for 8 and 12 in the semi-final against Central Zone and managed only 8 and 15 in the final.

While he could not contribute much with the willow, Rahane won a lot of praise for his decision to send teammate Yashasvi Jaiswal off the field in the final over the latter’s undisciplined behavior. Speaking after the match, Rahane said about the move:

“You have to follow rules and respect the game, your opponents and the umpires. That's the way I have always played my cricket and I will continue to do so.”

Incidentally, Jaiswal was the Player of the Final for his second-innings knock of 265.

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Can Ajinkya Rahane make a comeback to the Test team?

Following a prolonged lean spell with the bat, Rahane was dropped from the Test team for the home series against Sri Lanka earlier this year.

His comeback hopes suffered a setback as he picked up a hamstring injury during his stint with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for IPL 2022. Subsequently, he missed the knockout matches of the Ranji Trophy 2022.

Rahane’s last match for India was the Cape Town Test against South Africa in January this year. He registered scores of 9 and 1 as India lost the match by seven wickets.