Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and my averages have come down in last 3 years due to pitches in India: Ajinkya Rahane

Ajinkya Rahane registered a majestic double century (204 runs from 261 balls) representing Mumbai in their Ranji Trophy match against Hyderabad at the MCA Cricket Ground in Mumbai. The veteran batter still dreams of donning the Indian jersey to play the longest format of the game but shared an interesting angle as to why the average scores for several big players have dipped in recent years.

Rahane cited the examples of star batter Virat Kohli and Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara and claimed that the nature of Indian pitches has brought down the averages of the three batters.

“There was no mistake (in his style of batting that his average dipped), we were playing in India for the last three years. If you look at the players who are batting at number three, four or five their average has come down because of the wickets. Pujji-Virat and my (Pujara, Kohli) averages have come down,” Rahane said as quoted by Indian Express.

“I don’t think there were many mistakes; it’s not every time that we are committing the mistakes. Sometimes the wickets are such, this is no excuse but everyone saw the kind of wickets we had in India,” said the veteran batter.

I want to go as close to my U19 innings: Ajinkya Rahane

The middle-order batter further stated that he has been looking up his old diaries to take cues on what notes he prepared on his old innings. He also added that he would like to return to playing as he did back in his formative years.

“I have a habit of making notes whenever I have scored or not, I’m going through that now. I have scored whenever the team wanted to in crucial positions and we have won the games. Double ton is special, the way I was timing the ball. The way I wanted to, it has gone that way. I thought about my old innings of under-19 and Ranji Trophy. I want to go as close to that,” he concluded.