Was Disappointed After Missing The World Cup - Ajinkya Rahane

Team India’s Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane still harbours the hope of playing One-Day cricket. The Test regular, who has failed to seal his spot in the fifty-overs format, recently expressed his disappointment after missing the ICC World Cup in England.

The All India National Selection Committee headed by MSK Prasad ignored Rahane despite India struggling with their middle-order. They failed to fix their No. 4 slot which hurt them badly during the premier competition. The selectors also didn’t consider him even they had to pick two replacements in place of Shikhar Dhawan and Vijay Shankar.

Rahane, who last played an ODI game against South Africa in 2018, said expressed his grief on missing out the World Cup. Ajinkya Rahane also said that he doesn’t exactly know what wrong he did that the selectors didn’t even consider him for the No. 4 spot. Instead, the cricketer from Mumbai produced statistics to showcase his ODI performances in recent times.

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Firstly, in one-dayers, my position has always been up and down. Sometimes I have opened, and sometimes I have batted at No. 4. I don’t look at my stats that much, but when I was seeing them (recently), I have actually done very well in the last two years. In the West Indies (2016-17), I got a chance to open when Rohit (Sharma) was not there, and I got the Man-of-the-Series award (avg 67.20). When we came back to India and both (Rohit and Shikhar Dhawan) were available, I was not played,” Rahane said to Hindustan Times. 

Again, when Shikhar was not available, I got to open and performed well against Australia (2017), hitting four half-centuries on the trot. When I’ve got the opportunity at No. 4, also I have done well. So, exactly pata nahin chala ki kya hua hai (Didn’t exactly know what happened). My strike rate is also very good; it has been around 88-90 in the last two years.

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And my commitment is always there. I have never said I want any particular number. If the opening slot is available I have opened, if No. 4 is available, I have done well there. Yes, there’s disappointment at missing the World Cup. It is everybody’s dream, you work hard for it, and it is a big moment as a player. Actually, I haven’t understood why I was not in the World Cup team. Maybe the management felt this combination is the best, and after some time I respected it,” he added.

Furthermore, Ajinkya Rahane admitted that it was tough to digest after missing out on the ODI berth consistently. However, he disagreed to doing anything different to break into the 50-over side of the team. Rahane is happy with how he is striking the ball and wants to continue similarly.

“I will not try to change much because the zone in which I am batting, I will try to stay in it. The starts I get in one-day cricket, how to convert them into big hundreds and how I can play match-winning knocks, that is what is most important, I don’t think technically I can change anything. If you talk about the strike rate, mine has also been good in the last two years. I don’t think I have to change much,” Rahane concluded.