In an era where many cricketers give importance to style, swag and fancy tattoos there was a certain Ajinkya Rahane who unlike others was calm, composed and focused only on his game. Despite his commitment to the game the Mumbai batsman has often been criticized for his inconsistent performances of late and thus we will be discussing if Rahane is one of India’s best batsman in the present era.
Ajinkya Rahane made his international debut in 2014 in arguably the most difficult place to bat on i.e. England and returned with decent scores. It was his textbook technique which caught everyone’s attention. Like every other Indian player even Rahane wanted to establish himself in all formats of the game. It was in 2013 where he made headlines as he scored a 90 odd against a world class South Africa bowling attack in their own den. His knock was praised by all the cricket pundits and from there on got a consistent run in international cricket for India. He made up for missing his 100 in SA as he scored a 100 against NZ in NZ. India’s overseas tours completely transformed Rahane into a world class batsman as he went on to become the Indian among the current lineup to have a Test average of more than 50 in overseas conditions .Post that he tried his best to become an all format batsman and has a fairly decent World cup in 2015 and had a superb series against SA at home where he was one of the positive prospects for India as that series in 2015 was remembered for the special Faf and ABD knocks. From 2016 to 2017 Rahane established himself as a world class Test batsman and went on to become India’s Vice captain in the longest version of the game. Despite the modest returns in ODI’s where he averaged close to 40 he was still dropped from the team due to his low Strike rate .2018 turned did not turn out as he would have liked as he struggled in the overseas tours and his averaged dropped to below 45. Rahane in the last 2 years has however tried to redeem himself and get back his lost mojo.
To answer the question if Rahane is one of India’s best of this generation then yes!!!!he indeed has been a pillar for the Indian team and often delivered in pressure situations and thus deserves all the respect he gets. However in order to prove his critics wrong he’d have to start delivering consistently and adjust his game according to the demand of the situation . http://https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fimagevars.gulfnews.com%2F2019%2F09%2F30%2FAjinkya-Rahane_16d82be6f31_large.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fgulfnews.com%2Fsport%2Fcricket%2Fstaying-in-the-zone-helped-me-succeed-in-west-indies-ajinkya-rahane-1.1569856617719&tbnid=Iv24KcXER7YZpM&vet=12ahUKEwic9oO1iu3pAhWMESsKHU5SCMYQMygCegUIARC1AQ..i&docid=warPxj9ZIIAQtM&w=750&h=563&q=images%20of%20ajinkya%20rahane&ved=2ahUKEwic9oO1iu3pAhWMESsKHU5SCMYQMygCegUIARC1AQ