Rahane was determined on Day 2, says coach Pravin Amre
Just when the Paytm Freedom Series had become almost predictable, like a movie plot, and looked very much the same till Tea on Day 1, with India 139/6, a determined maverick, with the intent and the hunger to perform, took into his hands the responsibility to change things.
Rahane’s hundred on Day 2 wasn’t just about a man making up for his failures throughout the series. Rather, it was about a batsman, with a natural tendency to play strokes, trying to restrict himself, impose self-restraint, and adapt.
So says his coach, Pravin Amre, who stepped in to help the middle-order batsman, when he was failing with the bat, and getting out playing ambitious strokes. But the problem wasn’t just there.
“He was succumbing to pressure,” said Amre. “He had missed the T20 matches and that was disturbing him. And then some people said he did not belong to one-day cricket.”
“When he got to the Test matches, there was an anxiety to perform and prove. But he needed discipline and that is what I told him.”
Positioning superb
Rahane has been a person who has been shuffled in and out of the team, as well as up and down the batting order, and being dropped from the T20 series against the Proteas was still playing on his mind. ODI captain MS Dhoni had gone on record to say that Rahane found it difficult on slow wickets.
That was evident from the flowing drive that led to his downfall in Nagpur, a shot meant for flat wickets and not for rank turners. But, this game saw him recovering from all that, as well as the ghosts from his Test debut at the same venue, where he had forgettable scores of 7 and 1, and was dropped subsequently.
Rahane since then has come of age, and has finally completed his full-circle here at the Feroz Shah Kotla, where he scored his first hundred on home soil. This knock was a classic example of how to build an innings. “His positioning was superb. He really was determined,” noted Amre.
Amre’s words were resounding in his disciple’s mind, that he had to play 200 balls no matter what. And so he did, and in the process, played the roles of a second-fiddle, a backbone, and a full-fledged attacker, as and when the team required, all in the same innings.
He played second-fiddle, when Kohli was batting, batted with the lower-middle order after India had suffered a brief collapse, and then counter-attacked, when he and Ashwin were set. The first session on Day 2 might just be the one that changed the course of the game
Footwork immaculate
One specific feature of Rahane’s innings was him stepping out to Dane Piedt, a man already on song having picked up 4 wickets, getting to the pitch of the deliveries, and hoisting him for mammoth sixes. His footwork was exemplary.
“He was hitting sixes by stepping out. He was not doing this earlier. He was mainly batting from stance position. I liked it when he came out to meet the ball,” said Amre.
“He would play a shot and next ball defend. He controlled his gear and enjoyed his defence.”
“Can a batsman enjoy his defence? “Of course! It allows you to analyse your stay in the middle,” insisted Amre. “He backed the lower half and gained with every ball he faced because he also believed in himself.”
The low backlift, the flowing drive, the cut and the heave over long-on were all on display, but so was his defence, on a pitch that although wasn’t as dramatic as the previous one had been, but was offering some turn as the ball grew old.
Rahane, in Delhi, was the lull amidst the storm, and in a series where batsmen have played the pitch, instead of the ball, this man finally broke the shackles and gave the Test series what it needed the most- patience and temperament.