3 reasons why Ajinkya Rahane's selection for WTC final is the wrong move
Ajinkya Rahane has been called back to the Indian Test team for the World Test Championship final (June 7-11) against Australia. The right-handed batter last played a Test against South Africa in January 2022, after which he was dropped from the team.
The Border-Gavaskar winning captain has had a decent Test career - 4931 runs in 82 matches at an average of 38.52 with 12 centuries and 25 half-centuries to his name. The most reasonable argument for bringing Rahane back into the team is the fact that Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant are injured. This means that the team would lack experience at numbers 5 & 6.
However, there are genuine arguments against the Mumbai batter as well. We look at three such reasons in this article.
#1 Poor record in England
Although the primary reason for his recall seems to be his experience of playing in English conditions, Ajinkya Rahane does not have a respectable record in the country. He has scored 729 runs in 15 matches at an average of just 26.04.
Rahane's record at the Oval is even worse - 55 runs in 6 innings. He scored a duck in each of the three matches. He has failed to put in impact performances in the last two tours (2018 & 2021).
#2 Not among the top performers in Ranji Trophy
Rahane's scores in Ranji.
Vs Saurashtra: 24 & 16
Vs Maharashtra: 14 & 35
Vs Andhra: 44
vs Hyd: 204
vs Assam: 191
vs TN: 42 & 11
Vs DEL: 2 & 51
Only one inn vs Hyderabad is an inns worthy of being labelled good. In Duleep Trophy, he scored 207 vs North East Zone and outside of twitter.com/niche_ant_89/s…
In the Ranji Trophy, Ajinkya Rahane has scored 634 runs in seven matches at an average of 57.64. At face value, these numbers look great. However, the elegant batter scored most of his runs against lower-ranked opposition in the competition. Several batters in his team averaged more than him in the same season - Sarfaraz, Kotian, and Shaw (minimum five innings).
His form in Indian conditions may not be the best indicator of a one-off final in England. Cheteshwar Pujara worked his way back into the team after consistent performances in county cricket last season, even though they came in the second division.
#3 Does not set a great precedent for the long term
Sarfaraz Khan in Ranji trophy since 2019:
71*, 36, 301*, 226*, 25, 78, 177, 6, 275, 63, 48, 165, 153, 40, 59*, 134, 45, 5, 126*, 75, 20, 162, 15*, 28*, 125. https://t.co/C9WqIhriL1
While this might just be a stop-gap move for the final by the team management, it does not reward consistency at the domestic level. Sarfaraz Khan has been the most consistent batter in domestic cricket since 2019. This season, he has scored 556 runs in 9 innings at a mind-boggling average of 92.67 in the Ranji Trophy.
Suryakumar Yadav was dropped from the playing 11 after just a single innings on debut in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. This creates a sense of confusion among the players who are vying for the same spot. If he wasn't good enough, why wasn't Rahane picked for the coveted series at that point in time? Without proper backing, it is tough to expect immediate results.