India, Narendra Modi, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Jatin Paranjpe Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar, Shane Warne, Virat Kohli
Ajinkya Rahane scored a brilliant 112 [Photo-Twitter]

Former Australian leg-spinner-turned commentator Shane Warne has hailed Indian skipper Ajinkya Rahane’s unbeaten hundred in the ongoing Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground as one of the best ever Boxing day knocks.

Ajinkya Rahane played a true captain’s knock of 104* off 210 balls, one that was an epitome of skills, patience, resolute defense, determination, and bloody-mindedness.

Rahane had come to the middle after India had lost back-to-back wickets of Shubman Gill and Cheteshwar Pujara and were reeling at 3/64. The right-hander went on to bat throughout the day, stitching a crucial 50-run-stands with Hanuma Vihari and Rishabh Pant followed by an unbeaten 100-plus stand with all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.

Ajinkya Rahane,Shane Warne
Ajinkya Rahane [Photo-Twitter]
Warne went on to hail Rahane’s knock as one of the greatest Boxing Day hundreds given the fact that it came on a difficult track and against possibly the best attack in the world.

“As far as hundreds go, they all just say one in the hundreds column, but some are better than others and that will go down as one of the all-time great Boxing Day hundreds from Ajinkya Rahane,” Shane Warne told Fox Cricket.

“Given the conditions, given the situation of the game, given the quality of the bowling, the way the pitch has nipped around, put all those into the mix. That’s where the stats don’t change, it just goes down as one hundred but it’s a lot more than that,” he added.

Warne further added that such was the quality of the knock that Rahane played that it would have made the regular Indian skipper Virat Kohli really proud of what his deputy achieved on the second day.

”I can’t say enough about what a quality hundred this is. Absolutely outstanding from Rahane, the Indian skipper. I’m sure Virat Kohli is sitting back in India, feeling very proud of what this Indian team have been able to do without him and how well Ajinkya Rahane has done,” Shane Warne said.

And. Shane Warne is right. Virat Kohli did put out a tweet in which he congratulated Ajinkya Rahane for his stupendous knock. Kohli had written-

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”Another great day for us. Proper test cricket at its best. Absolutely top knock from Jinks” @ajinkyarahane88

 

This was Ajinkya Rahane’s second hundred in the Boxing day Test at the MCG and in the process, he joined Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar as the second Indian skipper to score a ton against Australia on the iconic occasion.

Also Read- I Could Have Got Ajinkya Rahane 5 Times Before His Hundred: Mitchell Starc