How much trust is too much trust ft. Ajinkya Rahane & CSK
Trust, if you look it up on the internet, is defined as the firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something. That is very much true in sporting environments. When a particular team is said to be trusting a certain player, it means they are backing that player to become good. At some stage, and with the sort of impact that made them trust him/her in the first place.
If a book on cricketing teams placing trust in players is ever written, it will likely have multiple chapters on the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), with the foreword penned down by, well, you guessed it - that man wearing No. 7.
Over the years, CSK have followed this procedure religiously. Several cricketers, who have not been trusted to perform specific roles elsewhere, have rocked up in Chennai, and have transformed their careers. Shivam Dube, of the current crop, is a prime example.
Like Dube, there was another lad who was in sparkling form in 2023, which sort of warrants why CSK have been waiting for so long for him to regain his mojo.
But with just two games left, and with runs seemingly hard to come by, how much longer do CSK persist with Ajinkya Rahane?
This, undeniably, leads to another question. Of how much trust is too much trust. CSK fans, who have probably gotten tired of calculating NRRs this season, will perhaps say now is the time to cut all their losses and play someone lesser burdened by expectations and recent baggage.
Ajinkya Rahane has not provided the returns CSK would have wanted
It is not without reason either. In 11 innings this season, Rahane has scored 209 runs at an average of 19. At a strike rate of just 120.11, which is an extraordinarily high-scoring season, it is pedestrian for a top-order batter. It is also a massive downgrade from 2023, where Rahane struck at 172.49 and mustered 326 runs.
Last year, he was thriving against pace, and it was arguably his role to bash them into submission. That then flowed over into his batting against spin, and he batted at a healthy tempo against them too. This season, he has struggled against pace, and his inability to find the fence regularly against spin has stuck out even more.
For further context, his strike rate against pace in IPL 2024 sits at 132.25. In 2023, it was 232.39. Against spin, the strike rate in CSK’s title-winning campaign was 136.44. In 2024, it is down to 90. This is made worse by the fact that the five-time champions have actually moved him up to open, just so that he can face more pace. And yet, the numbers have come down so drastically.
The eye test does not do Rahane any favors either. On quite a few occasions, he has seemed late on strokes, hurried by the pace of the bowler, or just rushed because his thought process was not clear enough. When Rahane is batting at his best, these instances rarely happen.
To accommodate Rahane as an opener, CSK have had to fiddle in other areas too. Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad has, at times, slipped down to No. 3, with Rachin Ravindra also enduring a spell on the sidelines. Daryl Mitchell, whose best position seems in the top three, has also had to bat lower.
The case for dropping Rahane, thus, is very damning. In fact, had it been any other team, this conversation would not have reached this point, because he would have been excluded much earlier.
But that is the thing about CSK. It is, more often than not, their biggest strength. The way they back their players, the way they make them feel loved, and how they keep reiterating that one bad game or season does not define a particular player. Now, though, it might just have come to a stage where their fans might be wondering if this has become their biggest weakness too.
All of that, for those on the outside, is food for thought, especially as the five-time champions head into proper must-win territory – first on Sunday against the Rajasthan Royals and then next Saturday against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
As for those on the inside, well, their mind might already be made up. And do not be surprised if they stick to Rahane, and hope he fires in the games that really matter. Of that, CSK have a vast catalog – Ambati Rayudu and Shane Watson being the most recent exponents.
As it seems now, it did not make sense to persist with those players at that time too. But they did. The only difference is that the burden is still on Rahane to perform. The good thing, if it can be considered good, is that things surely cannot get worse from here.
It is not as if Rahane cannot turn things around. He certainly can. There is a reason he has come up clutch before, not just for CSK but for India. If he does that over the next week or so, the word ‘trust’, as the internet says, will have been used just how it is meant to.
The firm belief CSK have in Rahane's ability will make sense. And that book about cricketing teams trusting and backing players left, right, and center, well, it might just have another CSK chapter in it.