“Is age mein matlab? Main abhi bhi young hoon yaar” - Ajinkya Rahane gives a witty response to query on Test comeback

Team India Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane gave a cheeky response to a query about him making a comeback to international cricket at this stage of his career. He asserted that he is still young and has a lot of cricket left in him.

The 35-year-old batter was recalled to the Test team for the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final against Australia on the back of an impressive Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season for Chennai Super Kings (CSK). He registered scores of 89 and 46 even as India went down to the Aussies by 209 runs at The Oval, losing yet another ICC final.

Rahane will next be seen in action when India take on West Indies in a two-match Test series starting Wednesday in Dominica. At a press conference ahead of the first Test, the experienced batter was asked about his thoughts on making a Test comeback at the age of 35.

He wittily replied:

“Is age mein matlab? Main abhi bhi young hoon yaar [At this age means? I am still young].” Rahane asserted, “There is still a lot of cricket left in me. Definitely, the IPL season was pretty good and I had a very good domestic season as well.”

The Team India batter added that he is feeling good about his batting and stated that he has worked on certain areas of his game.

“Batting-wise, I am feeling quite confident. In the last year and a half, I have worked quite a bit on my fitness. I have worked on some areas of my batting as well. I am enjoying my cricket and my batting at the moment. I don’t want to think far ahead. As of now, every match is important - personally and from the team point of view as well. I am focusing on that," Rahane said.

On being re-appointed as vice-captain, the Mumbai batter pointed out that it is nothing new for him.

He replied:

“I am used to this role. I was the vice-captain for almost 4-5 years, but I am really happy to be back in the team and really happy to be back as the vice-captain.”

There have been a few questions raised over the choice of Rahane as vice-captain after one good Test match.

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“Just the role has changed, nothing else” - Rahane

After he was dropped from the Test team last year following a prolonged run of poor scores, many pundits reckoned that his international career was over. However, he was a revelation for CSK in IPL 2023 and did reasonably well in domestic cricket as well.

Asked what has changed in the last two-three months, Rahane replied:

“Nothing has changed. In the IPL, CSK gave me freedom. You are given a role as a player and you try to fulfill it. Earlier, my role was to play as an anchor, so I was playing accordingly. CSK told me to play with freedom and play my natural game. Actually, my game is about stroke play. I always look to score runs. Just the role has changed, nothing else.”

He concluded:

“I have always believed that the role the team has given me, I have to fulfill that. Here, whatever role Rohit Sharma gives me, I will try to fulfill that.”

In IPL 2023, Rahane smashed 326 runs in 14 games, averaging 32.60 at an excellent strike rate of 172.49.