India Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane shed light on his role in red-ball cricket, revealing that he gets involved in the tactical side of the game only when skipper Virat Kohli approaches him.
“I don’t try to get too involved,” Rahane told former wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta in a chat on ESPNCricinfo.
“I have to be ready with plans. You need to analyse and read into match situations. If the need arises, I do voice my opinion straight away but importantly, when Virat asks me what needs to be done, I have to be ready with the answers.”
Also read: One game doesn’t make you bad players of the short ball: Ajinkya Rahane on criticism after NZ tour
The 32-year-old also shed light on his strategy in the white-ball game. Rahane has, at times, received flak for his scoring rate. He has been in and out out of India’s limited-overs side. His last One-day International was in February 2018 while his last Twenty20 International was almost four years ago – against West Indies in Florida.
“It is very difficult to open the innings after you have been batting at No 4 for a while. It is hard to say what my best position is, though,” the Mumbai batsman said.
“I don’t try to copy anyone. Inside-out shots, back past the bowler and the one-two shots I’ve developed recently – you need to back them. Say, in the first six overs I get to play 18 balls, I try to see how my strike-rate can be at 150-160.
Also read: Cricket should only start when there is a vaccine for coronavirus, says Ajinkya Rahane
He added: “Then, between overs 6-14, you need to break your innings down. If I am batting after six overs, what should the strategy be?
“The way I get out in T20 cricket looks extremely ugly. That was when Rahul bhai [Dravid] told me ‘don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter how it looks. In T20s, you just watch the ball and hit it’. I feel my strike-rate improves with how much time I spend at the crease.”
Rahane has become one of India’s most dependable slip fielders in recent times. Against Sri Lanka in 2015, he plucked eight catches in a match, an all-time record. Rahane weighed in, insisting that he struggled as a young player in the slip cordon, only to get better at it over time.
“I was in the [Mumbai] Ranji U-19 team for two years, where I had a stint as a captain too, and my coach had gone around praising my slip-catching abilities,” Rahane said.
“I dropped so many catches in my first season. It could’ve been because I was nervous. I worked hard on identifying the angle of the ball while it approaches you. I also worked on the positioning of my hands.
“It got better with time. In the slips, the important thing is to switch on and switch off. You can’t be switched on all the time either because there might be a case of not being on at the right moment,” he added.