Ajinkya Rahane opens up on his massive slump, points out key reason that led to his downfall
Ajinkya Rahane ( Image Credit: Twitter)
Former India Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane has said that no player can score runs when there is no first-class cricket. Ranji Trophy, which is the red-ball tournament hasn’t been played since 2020 due to the COVID19 pandemic. This was the first time the tournament wasn’t played since its inception in 1934. Finally, the tournament will start on February 17.
Rahane has had a terrible year with the bat. In the 13 games in 2021, he only managed to score 479 runs, averaging 20.82 with two half-centuries. This led to him being stripped of the vice-captaincy in the longest format ahead of the South Africa tour. Meanwhile, the right-hander has said that in the absence of first-class cricket, it s difficult to score runs.
‘Sometimes, the reality is, when you play only one format and especially in the last 2-3 years where there is no Ranji cricket and no other domestic games, I think that needs to be taken into account because you can’t score runs sitting at home,’ Rahane said on Backstage with Boria.
The 33-year-old added that he was dropped from the ODI team out of the blue. He further added that he was playing well in the 50-over format in the years 2014, 0215, 2016, and 2017 but was aced from the ODI team without any reason. In these years, Rahane averaged 32, 40.11, 35.50, and 48.83 respectively.
‘Before that, I was playing ODI cricket continuously for Team India and I was doing really well. Suddenly, I got dropped, I don’t want to go into that, I don’t want to go into my past, but the reality is I was playing well in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017.’
‘ODI and Test cricket both were going really well. After that I hardly got game time, there was a huge gap between Test matches,’ he added.
