Out-of-Form Ajinkya Rahane Vows to Hit Top Gear Soon

Team India’s vice-captain in Tests, Ajinkya Rahane is troubling to get some runs under his belt of late. The fans are hoping Rahane will soon return with a bang and will provide some contribution for his side. Meanwhile, Ajinkya Rahane’s Test career has been an indifferent one, unlike any other Indian batsmen. However, his career can be divided into two halves. Since his debut till October 2016, the bowlers found it difficult to beat Rahane’s defence, whereas, the batsman found it tough to get going post that.

Rahane’s career in two halves

Ajinkya Rahane's Test average breakdown
From debut till Oct. 2016: 51.37
From Nov. 2016 to Now: 28.06 #INDvWI pic.twitter.com/mZAR5m7EZX

— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) October 12, 2018

Unfortunately, that has changed of late and his time in the middle has not been so fruitful. Ajinkya Rahane did find success in most of the competitive conditions in one year or so and became India’s second best batsman on testing tours of South Africa, New Zealand, England, and Australia.

Furthermore, in India’s 2013-2015 touring cycle, Ajinkya Rahane scored 1069 runs. He became the third highest run-getter after Virat Kohli’s 1312 and Murali Vijay’s 1080 tallies. However, Rahane also has nine 50+ scores who joins with Kohli and Vijay. In addition to that, he also scored three hundred in this period which is the second most after Kohli, who scored six hundred.

Ajinkya Rahane also achieved the highest average of 54.67 by an Asian player outside Asia at the end of the Windies series in 2016. His run-scoring rate later blocked against the top Test playing nations. In the 2016-17 season, he scored 63 runs from five innings against England averaging 12.60 with the highest score of 26 runs.

Moreover, the right-hand batsman scored 198 runs from four Test match against Australia with the highest score of 52 runs averaging only 33.

Later in 2017-18, he only played a single Test against the Proteas where he managed to score 57 runs from both the essay with an average of 28.50. The latest he played was against England in 2018. Rahane played all the five Test match scoring 257 runs with his best score of 81 runs averaging 25.70.

Ajinkya Rahane possessed the ability to bat deep and build up partnerships with the lower order but failed to do so in recent times. However, the fans of Indian cricket will hope that Rahane returns with his run-scoring race very soon.