Published: Aug 04, 2013, 11:24 AM (IST)
Edited: Aug 04, 2013, 11:24 AM (IST)
What Ajinkya Rahane has certainly done is the fact that he has kept himself in the reckoning © IANS (File photo)
Ajinkya Rahane scored a match-winning 50 against Zimbabwe to help India seal the series 5-0. Aayush Puthran feels the knock won’t be good enough for the Mumbai batsman to cement a place in India’s ODI side as a mistake in one form of the game will continue to haunt him in the others.
Contentment — is the state of mind one would expect from a batsman who has scored a half-century in the only opportunity that he got, with hope being the other. With Ajinkya Rahane, curiously, it won’t be surprising if there are still shreds of disappointment and cluelessness lingering on in his mind after playing the match-winning knock against Zimbabwe in the fifth and final One-Day International (ODI). It is certainly hard to gauge, and even tough to conclude; but Rahane would precisely see where he messed up his chance of cementing a place in the side and rue his five-month old mistake, for which the half-century on Sunday wasn’t enough compensation. It may have been a mistake in a Test match, but as the golden saying goes ‘when you have the opportunity, make it count’.
It isn’t a story with the prettiest ending — On March 22, 2013, a pleasant news awaited Mumbai cricket when Rahane got his Indian Test cap against Australia in the 2013 home series. However, all the excitement vanished in thin air as Rahane played a poor shot to get out to Glenn Maxwell’s bowling in the second innings of the fourth Test.
There were a few distinct features about the shot
· It was needless
· It didn’t show any sense of khadoos upbringing, certainly to the frustration and disappointment of all his local coaches and former Mumbai cricketers
· It raised questions over his temperament for the long form of the game, and
· He had wasted his best opportunity to get another chance at the Test level
Now five months down the line, Rahane stroked a composed and assured half-century to guide India to victory against Zimbabwe. The result of the match was not surprising and thus Rahane’s contribution will be overlooked as menial. The fact that it was an average knock against a below-average opposition in the most gifted circumstances will all overshadow the fact that the Mumbai cricketer performed in the only opportunity he got in the series. Amit Mishra’s six-wicket haul won’t do his contribution any good either.
What he has certainly done is the fact that he has kept himself in the reckoning. With Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan well placed for the opening position, he will have to battle it out with Cheteshwar Pujara, Ambati Rayudu and an if-fit Manoj Tiwary for the position of the back-up batsman in the middle order.
It will be a tough fight and Rahane is bound to feel unjustified. Just one pretty feat definitely won’t help his case and he will have to continue to muster runs on a consistent basis for the selectors to take him seriously and push his case in the team above a well-settled unit.
Meanwhile, Rahane would very well be aware where one moment of madness has placed his career, one that should have been flourishing and rising given his exploits in the domestic circuit and the Indian Premier League (IPL), currently.
(Aayush Puthran is a reporter with CricketCountry. Mercurially jovial, pseudo pompous, perpetually curious and occasionally confused, he is always up for a light-hearted chat over a few cups of filter kaapi!)
