Sourav Ganguly
Photo Credit: India Today.

Former Indian captain and now CAB President, Sourav Ganguly, put an end to the curious mystery of Ajinkya Rahane’s disparity of batting average.

Rahane is one of the rare batsmen who have a dominant overseas average when compared to his average in India. The Mumbai batsman is remembered for his knocks at Lord’s, MCG and now Jo’Burg under testing conditions.

Relating to Rahane’s challenges while batting at number 5 for India, Ganguly mentioned that playing in the middle order has its challenges in low bounce tracks.

Sourav Ganguly deciphers why Ajinkya Rahane has a better overseas average than at home
Sourav Ganguly at India Today Conclave.

Ganguly was one of the four delegates invited by India Today Conclave 2018. The others included in the panel were BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, U19 World Cup-winning captain Prithvi Shaw, and Ajinkya Rahane himself.

I batted at number five- both home and away. I don’t know whether he (Rahane) will agree or not, batting at number 5 and 6 in India is the toughest things. This is because the ball gets old, it gets soft, and becomes difficult for strokeplay,” opined Sourav Ganguly during the discussion.

By the time you get to bat, Sehwag, Tendulkar, and Dravid already batted and then came my turn. So by the time, there were deep points, long off, deep square legs and midwicket. Therefore, the good shots would go for a single,” added Dada.

Sourav Ganguly deciphers why Ajinkya Rahane has a better overseas average than at home
Ajinkya Rahane during the high profile event.

Rahane has an envious average of 52.06 outside India, scoring as many as six tons in his career. His average in India takes a massive dip to 33.69 while batting in India where he amassed only three tons as of now.

“And the same thing when you go overseas, like Rahane did at Jo’Burg, there were three slips and gully. Rahane would hit the ball and it would fly to the boundary. So the value for shots is a lot more,” reckoned the former Indian captain.

Used to ask Dravid to bat lower down: Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly Rahul Dravid
Credits: Getty Image

So, batting at number five in India is a lot more difficult with the reverse swing, the old ball, spin friendly tracks and low bounce. If you look at Rahane’s knock at Lord’s, it is one of the best ever,” Ganguly said.

Cricket is a mental game. Its all about the conditions. I used to ask Jammy to bat at number 5-6 instead so that I got to feel the hard new ball whenever I used to get too many 40s and 50s,” revealed Sourav Ganguly.

Here’s the entire discussion

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