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Team India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane has established himself as a key part of the Test team. The veteran of 73 Tests has so far amassed 4583 runs at an average of 41.28 in a career spanning eight years.
The right-handed Mumbaikar has notched up 12 centuries in his career, with none of them coming in a Test loss. He has a clean slate as a captain, too, with four wins and a draw in the five matches he has led the team in Tests.
Ajinkya Rahane’s record away from home is pretty exemplary, and he would be a vital cog for Team India in the World Test Championship Final and in the ensuing five-Test series in England.
Rahane had a successful start to his Test career, as he became the backbone of the Indian middle-order in his very first season. However, he has had his share of ups and downs and has been bogged down by consistency issues over the years. In this article, we'll take a look at different phases of Ajinkya Rahane’s Test career.
#1 Ajinkya Rahane's wait for a Test debut
After coming through the ranks in domestic cricket and excelling for India A, Ajinkya Rahane made his international foray in the limited-overs leg of India’s tour of England in 2011.
The right-handed batsman made an immediate impression, scoring a fifty on debut. His score of 61 is still the highest by an Indian on their T20I debut. Ajinkya Rahane followed that up with a decent tally of 158 runs in five one-day internationals.
A good record in First-class cricket to go with his promising performances on the international scene led to his inclusion in the Test squad for India's home series against the West Indies in November 2011.
The presence of stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir meant that the then 23-year-old Rahane found it difficult to break into the playing XI.
For the first few series against West Indies and Australia, Virat Kohli, who had debuted a few months back in West Indies, took the only available slot in the batting order. When Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman announced their retirements after the disastrous tour of Australia, Cheteshwar Pujara and Suresh Raina were drafted in the middle order during the Test series against New Zealand in August 2012.
Rahane, who had already been a part of the squad even before the duo, was snubbed once again, as he was considered only as a backup opener during the tenure of the Krishnamachari Srikkanth-led selection committee.
When the Sandeep Patil-led panel took charge, they assigned Ajinkya Rahane as a middle-order batsman. When Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag were dropped from the Test team, Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan replaced them, and the Mumbaikar once again had to bide his time on the bench.
After a wait of 16 Tests, Ajinkya Rahane finally made his Test debut in the middle order in the fourth Test against Australia in Delhi in 2013, with Pujara getting pushed up the order to replace an injured Dhawan as an opener.
#2 Ajinkya Rahane's successful phase (Debut to October 2016)
After his debut Test, Ajinkya Rahane missed the next two Tests against the West Indies at home but sealed his place in the Test line-up with consistent performances in the next series.
During this phase, most of India’s engagements were away from home (South Africa, New Zealand, England, Australia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, West Indies), and Ajinkya Rahane was a prolific run-getter in each series. He recorded at least one ninety-plus score in each of the nine series during this phase.
The knocks Ajinkya Rahane played in Durban, Wellington, The Lord’s and Melbourne displayed his sound technique as well as the resolve and ability to deliver under pressure. His stock rose, and he was appointed the vice-captain of the team ahead of seniors like Ravichandran Ashwin, Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay.
During this period, Ajinkya Rahane scored the most runs (2209) behind only Virat Kohli (2421) and averaged the highest (51.37) of all Indian players. He had an equally good record in Asia and outside, recording four centuries apiece. Rahane registered a good strike rate of 53.62, a key indicator of a batsman batting in the lower middle order who has to bat with the tail on occasion.
Ajinkya Rahane was efficient against both pace and spin, averaging 50.8 (SR: 49.8) and 52.0 (SR: 58.3), respectively. The stylish batsman bagged his highest Test score of 188 in the last Test in this phase, doing so against New Zealand in Indore.
Incidentally, this was also the period during when Rahane became a regular member of the ODI team, primarily batting in the middle order while also doubling up as the backup opener. Rahane’s record at home and away venues during this period was as follows:
#3 Ajinkya Rahane's Decline (November 2016 to January 2019)
Immediately after the Indore Test, where Ajinkya Rahane bagged his career-best Test score, India locked horns with New Zealand in a five-match ODI series. After almost securing his place at no. 4 with consistent performances, Rahane was again the opener’s role in the absence of Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul (who was now up the pecking order).
However, Ajinkya Rahane did not look at ease during that series and looked as if he was pushing too hard. That struggle carried over to Tests as well, with India playing most of their matches in spin-friendly conditions during this phase.
Rahane's approach against spin was over-cautious, as he played predominantly on the back foot, thereby reducing the opportunities to score runs. He was even dropped for a few Test matches in South Africa after a poor series against Sri Lanka at home in 2017, where he mustered only 17 runs in three games.
However, Ajinkya Rahane gave a glimpse of his potential on various occasions during this phase as well. Be it his partnership with Cheteshwar Pujara in Bengaluru against Australia in 2017, his knocks of 48 on a tough Wanderers pitch in 2018, 81 in Nottingham in 2018 or 70 in the second innings in Adelaide in 2018, Rahane has demonstrated his value in the Indian Test team. However, such knocks have been too few and far between, with Rahane struggling for consistency,.
During this phase, Ajinkya Rahabe was the fourth leading run-scorer for India with 1279 runs, but his average dropped down to just 29.74. His strike rate also fell to 46.2 from 53.62 in the earlier phase, which highlighted his struggle to get going.
Rahane's averages at home and away were both pretty ordinary too: 24.71 (SR: 45.01) and 34.54 (SR: 47.05), respectively. Against pace, he averaged 31.2, while against spin, that plummeted to 28.3.
Ajinkya Rahane’s record at home and away during this phase are as shown in the table below:
#4 Ajinkya Rahane's improvement but inconsistency still a concern (August 2019 to present)
During this phase, which also marked the first cycle of the World Test Championship, Ajinkya Rahane rediscovered his form and saw a marked improvement in his numbers. He was India’s leading run-scorer during this period, amassing 1095 runs at an average of 43.8, a tally that included three centuries.
Rahane began India's inaugural WTC campaign with an impressive performance in the West Indies, scoring 271 runs in two Tests. He continued his good form against South Africa and Bangladesh at home. Like all other Indian batsmen, though, Rahane also failed to score big during the New Zealand sojourn.
Against Australia, captaining the team in the absence of Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane led from the front with a fighting century in Melbourne to kickstart India’s comeback after the ignominy of 36 all out in Adelaide. However, Rahane struggled for consistency, as he again endured a pretty ordinary series at home against England, notching up just one fifty in four Tests.
As he has done previously in his career, Rahane once again rose to the occasion and lifted the team from precarious positions on multiple instances. He took the team to a respectable total from 25/3 in the first Test against West Indies and also forged key partnerships with Rohit Sharma against South Africa in Ranchi and against England in the second Test in Chennai. The innings Rahane played in Melbourne was the cornerstone in India’s triumph Down Under.
Ajinkya Rahane’s home and away numbers improved drastically during this phase as compared to the previous one when he averaged 42.27 (SR: 51.49) and 45 (SR: 44.55), respectively. He averaged 43 against pace and 45 against spin during this period.
Ajinkya Rahane’s record at home and away during this period has been as follows:
Ajinkya Rahane is a player whose place in the Indian Test team is often under scrutiny. While his quality and class have never been in doubt, consistency has been an issue for him.
However, the team management and experts have backed Ajinkya Rahane to retain his place in the team because of the important and timely knocks he comes up with from time to time. Nevertheless, Team India would want their vice-captain to be more consistent in the two upcoming series, just like he was during the first few years of his Test career.
Also Read: Different phases of Ajinkya Rahane's ODI career.
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