Salient Features of Mr Consistent – Ajinkya Rahane

Salient Features of Mr Consistent – Ajinkya Rahane: Years 2011 and 2012 saw many youngsters in the Indian dressing room that got opportunity to exhibit their talent. One of the many was Ajinkya Rahane who has now firmly cemented his position in the Indian playing XI in every format of the game. Ajinks is now an important cog in the batting line-up be it at home or overseas. The right-handed batsman has impressed everyone with his batting and fielding and his records at home and more importantly away from home has justified his importance.

Rahane’s performance in the overseas conditions is the highlight of his career. Right from his early days in his career, he has showed signs of perfection in his batting and always possessed the hunger to score bountiful runs. Rahane notched up two centuries in tough New Zealand conditions when India under-19 team toured New Zealand in 2007.

He started his ODI career playing for India as an opener in the 2011 Natwest series in England. However, he was shuffled in middle order later on and has been holding the middle order quite well. His stability in batting, holding up one end of the wicket and forming partnerships is the feature of Rajane’s role in the Indian batting unit. He has been a perfectionist playing against few raging bowling attacks in the world especially in foreign conditions.

Playing in England, Rahane has scored 283 runs in 7 ODI innings at an average of 40.43 which includes a century and a half-century. He scored 302 runs in 9 ODI innings in Australia at an average of 37.75. Facing these opponents in the conditions which are favorable for bowling was not a plain sailing task. Rahane, in his ODI career overall has aggregated 1584 runs at a decent average of 31 in 53 innings which also includes 9 fifties and 2 centuries.

Though his ODI record does not speak mountains of him, his test records show him as a person of a great character. Rahane had to wait long to make the test debut for India. However, it was just a matter of time that he proved his mettle with the bat in tests for India. After a delayed and stuttering debut against Australia in Delhi, Ajinkya travelled to South Africa, New Zealand, England, Australia and now Bangladesh. He played 14 of his 15 test matches away from home in the most difficult batting conditions. Batting in the middle order, he has tallied 1175 runs in tests at a staggering average of 47.

Playing against the deadly bowling attack of Proteas in South Africa, Jinks scored 209 runs in 2 tests at an average of 69.67. He missed a chance of scoring a century in Africa getting out on 96. In 2013-2014, India toured New Zealand and Rahane announced himself as a complete batsman there. In 3 innings, he scored 162 runs at an average of 54 tackling the swinging red cherry. His knock of 118 runs at Basin Reserve in NZ earned him plenty of praises from one and all.

Later on in 2014, India toured England where Rahane’s knock of 103 against the likes of Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad scripted India’s victory against England at Lord’s after 28 years. In the English conditions, where the likes of Kohli and Pujara were finding difficult even to time the ball, Rahane’s bat was on song as he scored 1 century and 2 fifties in the tour. He piled 299 runs in 10 innings in England.

After playing Proteas, Kiwis and English in their own den, India played 4 tests against the mighty Aussies who were riding high on confidence. Jinks had a terrific outing in Australian conditions too. He scored 399 runs in 4 tests at a handsome average of 57. He registered 2 fifties and 1 century. He had his career best score of 147 at MCG against the ferocious Australian bowlers.

Contrary to his silent image in his batting strike rate, Jinks has been amazingly superb opening the innings in IPL for Rajasthan Royals. He has been piling hundreds of runs in each season he played for the Royals. It is always a treat watching Ajinkya bat in T20s. His form with the bat showed consistency as he was the second highest run getter in IPL 2015 totaling 540 runs in 13 innings.

Cricket pundits feel there is a shadow of Rahul Dravid in Ajinkya Rahane’s batting. It was under Dravid, his captain-mentor and now the coach of Rajasthan Royals that Rahane emerged as one of the classic batsmen in the modern era. Showing terrific skills with the bat in India and more importantly abroad, there are plenty who rate Rahane to be the next Wall of India. The Wall, Rahul Dravid himself has been all praises for the Mumbai batter and considers him as a prolific batsman of today’s cricket. The time will tell whether he matches up with Rahul Dravid’s stature or surpass him in the future.

He is not an aggressive batsman like Virat Kohli and nor is he a hard-hitter of the cricket ball like Rohit Sharma. Jinks has a style of his own in his batting. He is a perfect blend of sound technique, defense and has the perfect temperament needed for the game. In his defense, he looks solid as a rock and in his strokes he looks smooth as a cream. Rahane is a prolific run scorer for India in the recent times in all the formats of the game and he is surely the man of the moment for Indian cricket. His fluency in batting validates the tags of class and consistency associated to his name.