Ajinkya Rahane reckons that captaining the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL gave him confidence

The Rajasthan Royals (RR) had a fine outing in the recently concluded eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The side led by Ajinkya Rahane played some splendid cricket during the league stages where the whole team contributed with match-winning performances, which helped them advance through to the playoffs.

However, they suffered a disappointing loss against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Eliminator and thus ended their campaign on the fourth position in IPL 2018. In a recent conversation, Rahane revealed about the learning which he received by captaining the Royals team this year.

Captaining the Royals franchise has given me a lot of confidence: Rahane

Rahane was appointed as the captain of the Rajasthan IPL franchise after the former RR skipper Steve Smith was barred from playing in the tournament by the IPL Governing Council due to the 12-month ban imposed by Cricket Australia (CA) for his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal. The franchise then showed a lot of faith in Rahane, whom they retained this year before the auction, to lead the side in Smith’s absence. The right-handed batsman responded well to the responsibility as he guided his team towards the playoff this season. He mentioned that the captaincy role helped him gain a lot of confidence for the future challenges.

“I am in a very good space as a batsman right now. The Rajasthan Royals captaincy opportunity gave me a lot of confidence and I learned many things there as well,” said Rahane in his recent interview with India Today.

He also talked about the challenge of leading the Indian Test team in the upcoming historic Test match against Afghanistan in Bengaluru, starting from June 14. The stand-in skipper noted that the No 1 Test team will be playing against Afghanistan in the similar fashion as any other team and will not be taking the Test debutants for granted.

“The Indian team’s intensity level would be much the same against Afghanistan in the one-off Test as like it has been against any other opposition. We cannot take any opponent for granted in cricket. It is important for us to focus on our strengths as a team. Afghanistan has some quality players in their side who have been impressive in the shorter formats,” concluded the Indian cricketer.

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