Opinion
I am a huge admirer of Ajinkya Rahane and his ability to drag India out of the mud, which has resulted in some of India’s most influential innings, such as Lord’s 2014, Melbourne 2020 and Delhi 2015.
He was his country’s highest run-scorer in the recently ended World Test Championship, scoring 1159 runs at a decent clip of 42.92.
It’s worth mentioning he’s an amazing fielder, especially in slips for spinners, while his captaincy is also laudable, but doesn’t mean much given Virat Kohli is a set to captain for the foreseeable future.
I understand that ‘Jinks’ is the ice to Kohli’s fire and that might be necessary, but rather than discussing his qualities as a leader, we should dissect his batting.
Rahane has played 77 Test matches (21st highest for India) and has scored 4742 runs at an average of 40.18. This includes 24 50s and 12 100s, with the highest score of 188. Those are the stats of someone who has succeeded at international level.
In recent years though, he hasn’t been the Rahane of old, as evident by his measly average of 21.06 in 2021 (from 10 Tests). In fact, besides the year 2018, when he performed well in the West Indies, his average hasn’t been over 40 since 2016.
Since the start of the England series in 2016, Rahane has averaged 33.77 in 48 Tests, which is roughly two-thirds of his career. No other Indian top or middle-order batsman in the last 31 years has averaged under 35 across a 48-Test stretch.
This stat just speaks volumes, I simply do not understand how a person who has averaged under 35 over such a long time be a shoe in the team.
Rahane is talented but there are names such as Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey and even Milind Kumar who have a similar average to him in the Ranji trophy, and those guys are nowhere near India’s Test squad.
Ajinkya Rahane of India (Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)
Compared to Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli, his numbers fall flat. At the end of the Indore Test in 2016, when Rahane hit his career-best of 188, his average was 51.37, while Pujara was on 49.22 and Kohli 45.66. After the Leeds Test, Kohli is at 51.14, Pujara is at 45.59, and Rahane the lowest at 40.18. That shows his lack of runs in the last few years.
In his last six years, he has only hit one hundred in SENA countries (112 at Melbourne) and he isn’t able to hit ‘daddy’ hundreds like his two middle-order compatriots.
Maybe this comes from his weakness against spin, being dismissed ten times by Nathan Lyon and nine times by Moeen Ali.
Of any modern-day Indian batsman who has played upwards of 50 Test matches, Rahane has the second-lowest career average, behind only Murali Vijay.
I understand the prowess, calmness and clutch he brings is immeasurable but the numbers tell the story of a man who is not at the peak of his powers.
I also understand that the Indian team is reluctant to change its middle order as all of them have been performing poorly in recent times but maybe taking out Rahane is a start to fixing the current dilemma.
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