Ajinkya Rahane set to become first Indian to play for Hampshire in County Championship

What's the story?

Ajinkya Rahane will become the first Indian to play for the English county Hampshire. Rahane will be the replacement of the South African opener Aiden Markram. Rahane is expected to play eight County Championship matches.

In case you don't know…

According to the previous reports, Rahane was expected to play for Hampshire along with six other Indian Test specialists. The rest of Indians who are expected to feature in English County Championship are Cheteshwar Pujara, Prithvi Shaw, Hanuma Vihari, Mayank Agarwal, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Ishant Sharma.

The heart of the matter

Playing county-cricket helps the players a lot to improve their game in the challenging conditions of England. Pujara has also previously benefitted while playing for another county side, Yorkshire.

Rahane will play the English County Championship from May to July for Hampshire. He said:

I am excited to be the first Indian to play for Hampshire, a county which has a glowing reputation. I hope to score runs and win as a team and would like to thank BCCI for allowing me to play.

White, the director of cricket at Hampshire, Giles White, said that they were excited to have Ajinkya Rahane in their side.

We’re delighted to attract a player of Ajinkya’s class and with both Aiden and Dimuth (Karunaratne) selected for the World Cup, we were obviously in the market for a top-order batsman. Ajinkya showed an interest early on and the way things have played out, it is a great opportunity to get him over. He’s enjoyed playing at the Ageas Bowl previously, and it’s going to be great to have a player of his stature joining the dressing room.

What's next?

BCCI wants the Indian Test specialists to play English County Championship before the inaugural of the World Test Championship which will start from The Ashes this year. India's first Test series under the Championship will be against West Indies. Therefore, they have arranged county games for the Indian players.