With regular opener Shikhar Dhawan skipping the series against Australia for personal reasons, Ajinkya Rahane found himself with another opportunity to show off his wares and try and cement his place in India’s ODI line-up.
Rahane stepped up to the challenge and delivered in fine fashion. He smashed four half-centuries in five games, filling in perfectly against a top opposition.
Beyond the statistics, it was the right-hand batsman’s understanding with top-order batsmen Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli that stood out.
He shared three century partnerships with Rohit, and one with Kohli. It was the top-ordered that neutralised the Australian pace attack before India’s spinners finished the job to secure a 4-1 series win.
Despite the numbers, though, Rahane was left out of the Twenty20 squad picked for the three-match series to commence this week.
The 29-year-old, however, refused to read too much into the exclusion. Choosing to treat the decision as the selector’s way of handing out rest to the members of the ever-bulging India probables.
“We play so much cricket, the team management, selectors take a decision and we respect it. Speaking about competition, it is necessary and it helps you to give your best performance. Whoever gets a chance does well for the team. I have always enjoyed the competition (among players),” Rahane told reporters during a promotional event in Mumbai on Monday.
‘Happy with my form’
Rahane instead chose to focus on the positives - his form. “I am happy. The responsibility and the opportunity I was given, the way I was supposed to bat, I did. Definitely, I am happy with the form I have carried from the West Indies tour, I have made four consecutive fifties,” he explained.
“I could have converted the fifties into hundreds. It was in my mind to contribute, I shared three 100-run stands with Rohit (Sharma) and our aim was to give a good start to the team,” he added.
“In the future series if I get a chance I will convert the 50s into 100s,” he quipped.
On the team’s performance, Rahane expressed satisfaction and said whoever got a chance has performed.
“It is a proud moment for all of us. Our aim is 2019 World Cup and we are going in that direction. For that we have to play series by series and match by match, the aim of this team is to win every match and series, and we always try to improve.
“All have performed. In the middle-order Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav, whenever they got opportunity, they have performed. Rohit and Virat (Kohli) have always performed well. Kuldeep (Yadav) and (Yuzvednra) Chahal got a chance and they did well. Our bench strength is good.
“The fact that all of us get a chance and perform is a good sign. If you have to win the 2019 World Cup, then you have to test your bench strength,” he added.
