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Cricket rarely remembers the vice-captain. Think Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir or Rohit Sharma, exemplary batsmen who also happened to be the deputy at different times. Now think Ajinkya Rahane, India’s current vice-captain. Team man? Check. Brilliant close-in fielder? Check. Prolific batsman? Depends on how you look at it.
Rahane neither has the flamboyance of Virat Kohli nor the tedious assurance of Cheteshwar Pujara, not to mention that he has fewer centuries and a lower average. Perhaps the only Test vice-captain in recent history to be benched twice for the sake of team combination, Rahane is now set to captain India in three out of four Tests against a full-strength Australia after Kohli flies home for the birth of his first child. Will this unveil a new chapter in Rahane’s career?
Rahane is no Kohli, in batting excellence or mass appeal. Unlike the combative Kohli who loves to poke the opposition time and again, Rahane exudes a calming presence on the field. But beneath that veneer of calm, an aggressive psyche drives Rahane to take the attack to the opposition when the chips are down. Like his debut century in 2014, a feisty 158-ball 118 in Wellington that helped India draw the Test. More centuries were to come that year—103 in India’s 95-run win at Lord’s and 147 in the drawn Boxing Day Test at MCG, heralding a period when Rahane was India’s best batsman abroad, with an average of over 50 home and away.
“It is all about having that intent,” said Rahane at a press conference in Adelaide on Tuesday. “Intent means not going there and playing all the shots. Intent comes with your defence, leaving the ball. That positive mindset I feel is really important.”
TOUGH TIMES
What undid some of that goodwill was a string of single digit scores at home against a depleted Sri Lanka in 2017 while Rohit Sharma piled on the runs. Rahane’s intent questioned, Kohli decided to draw up the roster in the ensuring tour of South Africa based on “current form” and not logic. So, less than a year after leading India to a win against Australia in Dharamsala, Rahane was dropped in favour of Sharma for the first two Tests, in Cape Town and Centurion. India lost both Tests, sanity prevailed and Rahane responded with a dogged 48 on a difficult Johannesburg pitch, setting up India’s consolation victory.
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“When I got to know I was going to play, the only thing I was thinking was how to contribute,” Rahane told HT later. “I wasn’t thinking about myself. I was waiting for my opportunity. I was very sure about my plan, my ability and I was really confident.”
Wasn’t he hurt?
“Sometimes you have to respect the decisions because they are good for the team. I never think about myself.”
He doesn’t. An apt illustration of that is Rahane’s numbers away from home. He averages more (45.16) than Kohli (44.36) and Pujara (40.94) and has scored more fifties (15 to Kohli’s 12 and Pujara’s seven), but fewer centuries (seven to Kohli’s 14 and Pujara’s eight). It is easy to interpret that as Rahane being less consistent than Kohli or Pujara, but that misses the context: think of the crafty and critical 81 he scored in the first innings in Nottingham in 2018 to forge a 159-run stand with Kohli. It set the foundation for India’s only win on that tour. Or in Fatullah in 2015 when Rahane sacrificed his wicket two short of a century because India needed quick runs to force a result.
The debate surrounding Rahane’s home form was partially put to rest last year when he dug in to score 115 and lift India from 39/3 to 306/4 against South Africa in Ranchi. That was his first century in 18 Tests but it came when India desperately needed one.
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“Whenever the team has been in a difficult situation, he’s come and rescued us,” said Sharma, who scored 212 in that Test. “And this isn’t something he’s done just once or twice, he’s done it in many innings. This shows how strong he is mentally, and how much hunger he has to be able to steer the team out of bad situations.”
INTENSE SCRUTINY
Rahane has surely had to tap into that mental strength and hunger from the very beginning of his career, when India was struggling to find a new middle order and the focus fell on two rising Mumbai boys—Sharma the prodigy and Rahane the diligent one. It’s another debate whether Sharma was given a longer run to prove himself in Tests but there is no doubt Rahane had to earn his place—16 Tests as a reserve till debut. Then came the 2018 tour of South Africa where he was dropped twice for Tests before Kohli declared Rahane as a strong candidate for the No. 4 spot in the World Cup in England. After scores of 79, 11, 8, 8 and 34, he didn’t play ODIs again.
A man of few words, Rahane finally spoke on his omission over a year after India’s failed Cup campaign. “Not thinking too much about it, but yes at that time I felt I should be there at No.4,” he said, just before the start of the 2020 Indian Premier League. The IPL has been no bed of roses either–captain of Rajasthan Royals one day and traded to Delhi Capitals the other, and then benched for a few games.
Prolonged Test captaincy against Australia could be Rahane’s biggest Test yet. Early indications bode well for him as a batsman, because the captain needs to bat. The unbeaten century in the Sydney warm-up game bears testimony to a technique forged over two tours, one that makes Rahane an accomplished puller despite a small frame.
As captain, Rahane is a type Australia have rarely countered—quiet but aggressive. Wedded to the idea of needling the opposing captain to get under the tourists’ skin, Australia may not have much to work with for most of this series.
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