Ajinkya Rahane, Mumbai captain, has given excellent performance this season in domestic cricket, leading Mumbai to the Ranji Trophy semi-finals with a victorious 108-run performance against Haryana. His impressive run in T20 cricket includes an exceptional performance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 (SMAT), where he was awarded as the highest run-scorer. His commitment and performance indicates that he can perform well at a higher level.
Ajinkya Rahane, aged 36, directly answered the questions that were raised regarding his return to the national cricket team other than leaving it to selectors. Well, he felt that he had performed well in the final match of World Test Championship (WTC) against Australia in June 2023, where he was top scorer by making 89 runs for India in the first innings and ended up with 46 runs in the second innings of that match. But during the West Indies tour, he was able to make only 3 and 8 runs in the two innings where he batted. After that series he has not been selected in the National Cricket Team.
“I am not thinking about the future at all,” Rahane said after Haryanvi lost against Mumbai at Eden Gardens. “But I do know that I am batting well. I had a good performance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. This Ranji Trophy season is going well too. I batted nicely in the World Test Championship final in 2023 too. After that, I got dropped. Being selected or not selected is another matter, and the job of the selectors. But I thought I played well in that WTC final.”
Rahane expressed that he is still passionate about cricket and struggling to achieve his goals positively.
“In all this, I feel I have a lot of cricket left in me,” he said. “That’s why I am playing domestic cricket consistently. I just have one goal right now, and that is to play cricket with a positive mind-set, and whatever happens after that, happens.”
This season, during the Ranji Trophy, Rahane successfully led the Mumbai team as a captain, where he scored 437 runs at an average of 39.72. During the SMART, he made a total of 469 runs at an average of 58.62 with a strike rate of almost 165, which included three scores in the 90 plus figure.
“Domestic cricket has given me everything,” he further added. “I still have that jazba (passion) within me. Before any match, I still have that desire and hunger that I possessed earlier. I don’t know about the future, but I do know I am far from done. That’s why I have been giving my 100% in domestic cricket.”
After the final of Ranji Trophy, Rahane will play IPL by joining Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) as their senior-most Indian batsman.
“They have not chatted about KKR captaincy with me at all. If they’d have spoken, you journalists would’ve known about it and you guys would’ve been the ones informing me,” Rahane said jokingly. “Till then, I’ll not bother checking my phone.”
