Assiduous, dedicated and exceptionally gifted. Ajinkya Rahane is all of that and a team man. He will field for you at short-leg, bat at number six if the need arises and never complain.
But still, while his Test performances have propelled him to the top, his performances in the shorter formats of the game still invoke an expression of disappointment.
Rahane’s innings in the Indore Test’s first innings was a marvel. He was composed, temperamentally very sound and technically impeccable. He scored 188 off 381 balls in the process of which he fought some great bursts of fast bowling from New Zealand.
He was hit on his helmet twice and was struggling against the short ball. But not once did it seem like he wanted to back out. He was always in it.
You could tell that he was desperate to get a big score. In many ways, this score of 188 was a coming-of-age innings for Rahane, one that he can be mighty proud of.
Probably, in the process of scoring in some pretty testing conditions, Rahane has also confirmed a permanent spot for himself in the Test side, but that hasn’t really been a problem for him.
Before the start of the New Zealand series, he averaged a shade under 50, which has now gone up to 51.37. The problem is his performances in the limited-overs format.
As opposed to his delightful Test stats, Rahane’s limited-overs figures pales in comparison. He averages a paltry 33.22 in ODIs at a strike rate of 79.61.
Why can’t an Ajinkya Rahane who can bat for over 500 minutes in a Test innings, not bat long enough to score a century in ODI cricket since 2014?
He has the skill-set, he has undoubtedly had opportunities too. The answer to Rahane’s woes in ODI cricket lie in his spot in the batting order.
Unlike in Test cricket, where in eight out of his previous 10 Test innings he has batted at five (at number six in the other two), Rahane is more of a floater in India’s ODI side.
In his last ODI outing for India in Canberra against Australia, he batted at number seven before which he batted at number four in the previous two innings.
In the first ODI against Australia in Perth, he didn’t bat because MS Dhoni decided to promote himself up the order followed by Ravindra Jadeja. It can be destabilising for a top-order batsman to be shunted with such frequency.
Remember, Rahane is also employed as an opener when the regular ones don’t fire or are injured (which has become a norm of late).
In modern-day cricket, especially in the shorter formats, where scenarios undergo changes at the end of every over, batting orders need to be more and more dynamic. And this is probably where Rahane has had to always play catch-up.
Unlike the top three, or numbers six, seven, eight, Rahane doesn’t have a fixed batting position which means he might be facing a relatively new ball one innings, and a dilapidated old ball in another with a tail-ender at the other end. He has had to tailor his batting style massively all through his career, hence his low numbers.
Come Dharamsala, he has another challenge on his hands. With Shikhar Dhawan out with an injury, he is all set to open the innings for India. This presents a great opportunity for the 28-year-old to showcase his class in his most preferred position in limited-overs cricket.
Another thing that Rahane will have to keep an eye on is the fact that India are scheduled to play only eight ODIs between now and the 2017 Champions Trophy which means that he has limited opportunities to not only prove that he belongs in the format but also book a place in the Indian squad for that tournament.
We saw glimpses of his spirit in an otherwise quiet innings at Indore; come the ODIs, expect more from the fighter in him.
