Experienced Indian batter Ajinkya Rahane still believes he can make an India comeback even as the Test team moves forward to rejuvenate their middle-order options at the heels of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-23 cycle. The 34-year-old is hopeful of an unexpected India comeback as the side gears up for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy versus Australia in February and March.
Rahane has led Mumbai to consecutive wins at the start of the Ranji season, with his latest outing featuring a knock of 204 off 261 balls against Hyderabad. With his knock helping Mumbai attain a bonus-point win, the player was hoping that the selectors are keeping an empathetic look about his return to the side.
“I don’t want to prove anything to anyone. I think my competition is with myself. If I stick to that, things will fall into place. I don’t want to run after anything… just want to back my game,”
Rahane was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo, when queried about his career for India right now.
Not just fellow Mumbaikar Iyer, who now averages 50 at the Test level after seven Tests and one century alongside four half-centuries, the prodigious young Shubman Gill, too, makes a case to be given a run in the middle-order whenever the vacancy arrives. It doesn’t help Rahane that there are other young aspirants also vying for the spot that once belonged to him.
He has no one but himself to blame, though, after failing to repay the trust and the assurance provided by the Indian team management and the selection committee. India kept backing Rahane despite him never quite regaining consistency through the height of the bowling era.
From the start of 2021 till the point he was dropped after the tour of South Africa in January, the batter averaged 20.25 over 27 innings for India, looking scrambled in his thought process in the middle and losing his basic technique against relentless attacks in tough conditions.
