Debunking Ajinkya Rahane's 'slow scorer' myth
Parity is best served in courses of angst, frustration, pain, guilt, recovery, and closure. For if you are to weigh the world on a scale of Mohammad Amir’s comeback from exile to Kevin Pietersen’s forced exile, you’d realize that cricket, apart from being a great leveller, is a partial nut that keeps the common opinion above individual conscience.
There are elements meant to go with the flow, or rather, adjust the flow to meet their own needs, and there are others who have to parry their way around, skipping, hopping and meandering, so as to not get bludgeoned by the sheer weight of opinion more than anything else.
That Ajinkya Rahane has become one of the only six Indian batsmen to have four consecutive fifty-plus scores in a bilateral series would be brushed under the same weight of collective conscience as would be MS Dhoni’s slowest fifty by any Indian batsman since 2001.
Both these innings have come against the side that didn’t qualify for the Champions Trophy, and while the former stat would be diluted owing to the said premise, the latter would, and has, made Dhoni’s ‘open daggers’ comment resurface with its full propensity.
Rahane, on his way to a presumably ‘slow’ 91-ball 60, also became the third Indian opening batsman to register three consecutive scores of fifty or more, after Sachin Tendulkar and Manoj Prabhakar.
The thing about collective conscience is that it undermines individual opinion, howsoever justified that might be, and imposes an image that becomes sacrosanct and at times demeaning of a person’s efforts on the field.
Thus, when almost two years to this date, Dhoni, the captain of the side at the time, had justified Rahane’s exclusion from the last two ODIs in the away series against Bangladesh, saying that he fails to rotate strike during the middle overs, the knell had already rung large on the ears of everyone but Rahane himself.
Since the Dhaka ODI on June 18, 2015, Rahane’s numbers, in terms of averages, runs not scored in boundaries – an indication of how well a batsman rotates strike – and the much-fabled aspect of strike-rate do nothing but call a spade a spade.
In the 21 innings that the right-hander has played since the tour of Bangladesh, he averages 44.80 scoring 941 runs at a strike-rate of 81.03. These stats perhaps aren’t outstanding enough for someone to qualify him to be fit for ODIs in the England era, but the fact that beckons is England are the only team who play cricket conforming to the said era.
Rahane since the Bangladesh series in 2015
| Innings | Runs | Average | Strike rate | Runs in boundaries | Runs not in boundaries | Averege runs per innings in boundaries | Average runs per innings not scored in boundaries | Difference between the averages |
| 21 | 941 | 44.80 | 81.03 | 434 | 507 | 20.67 | 24.14 | 3.47 |
That the average number of runs scored in singles, twos, and threes is greater than – but not exceedingly greater – the average number of runs scored in boundaries exemplifies the fact that Rahane has been almost as good at rotating the strike as he has been at scoring boundaries.
Of these 21 innings, he has opened on 13 occasions, and hence, that average in the second-last column of the table becomes all the more pressing, as he has been able to rotate strike inside the powerplay overs, one could say when it is difficult to do so generally.
That India do not have a batsman who could go at more than run-a-ball in the first 10 overs, and given India’s method of playing safe inside the first ten, strike rotation becomes as important as hitting the boundaries.
A better way to analyze Rahane’s numbers and see how they stack against contemporary India openers would be to put up Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan’s numbers for the same time span.
Since the Bangladesh series in 2015
| Player | Innings | Runs | Average | Strike rate | Runs in boundaries | Runs not in boundaries | Average runs per innings in boundaries | Average runs per innings not scored in boundaries | Difference between averages |
| Rohit Sharma | 20 | 1123 | 56.15 | 88.13 | 612 | 511 | 30.6 | 25.5 | 5.1 |
| Shikhar Dhawan | 21 | 920 | 43.80 | 83.48 | 526 | 394 | 25.04 | 18.76 | 6.28 |
| Ajinkya Rahane | 21 | 941 | 44.80 | 81.03 | 434 | 507 | 20.67 | 24.14 | 3.47 |
Before going into the intricacies of these numbers, it is worth noticing that over a similarly-sized sample space, Rahane has marginally outscored Dhawan in terms of runs and marginally lags behind in terms of strike rate. Hence, it is worth pondering over as to who the first-choice opener for India should ideally be when Rohit returns to the side.
The right-most column indicates the difference between the averages calculated in the previous two columns, which indicates the adeptness of the batsman while scoring runs in boundaries and by running between the wickets.
A lower difference indicates that the batsman is as reliant on boundaries as he is on singles, doubles, and threes, while a high difference indicates that the batsman is either too reliant on the big shots or doesn’t play those shots at all – the latter one being an unlikely scenario in limited-overs cricket.
That column shows that while Dhawan is heavily reliant on fours and sixes, Rohit also scores most of his runs in boundaries. While that’s how you must ideally be scoring inside the powerplays, Rahane’s numbers, in this regard, are also praiseworthy because he has shown hitting skills that are equivalent, which is hard to achieve inside the powerplays.
Also, in the eight innings that Rahane hasn’t played as an opener but has been floated around in the middle order, he has accumulated 299 runs at 37.35 with 5 fifties, which, if not exceptional – only Kohli and Dhoni have a better average in the middle order for India during the said period – aren’t mediocre either.
However, the ICC tournament-extraordinaire Dhawan and the two-time double-centurion Rohit would most certainly be picked as the first-choice openers, and deservingly so, for they have been performing over the past two years.
That has, howsoever partially, got a lot to do with Rahane not being given a longer rope, and that may have been because of his own performances, injuries or sheer luck. But, since Dhoni uttered those words that seemed to have changed the landscape around India’s and Rahane’s career, the slow-scorer image that the Mumbai-born has acquired is as farcical as Cheteshwar Pujara’s strike-rate hullaballoo in Tests.
Pujara answered that by shattering all kinds of records this Test season. Rahane would like to do that this series. He already has 294 runs at 74.25, but alas, it is against the West Indies that couldn’t qualify for the Champions Trophy, in a series wherein the Indian captain averages 33.25 from as many innings, and against the attack Dhoni scored his slowest fifty of all-time at a strike-rate of 47.36.
Another stat to measure the relative ability to rotate the strike – at any stage of the innings – is by calculating the dot-ball percentage when not hitting fours or sixes. That is to exclude the number of runs scored in boundaries and the balls off which those runs are scored and then try and determine how many of the remaining balls were dots.
Overall career numbers
| Player | Runs
(A) | Balls Faced (B) | Runs scored in boundaries (C) | Runs not scored in boundaries D = (A – C)
| Balls faced while scoring boundaries (E) | Balls faced otherwise F = (B – E) | Strike rate when not scoring boundaries G = (D/F)*100 | Dot-ball percentage when not scoring boundaries 100 – G |
| Ajinkya Rahane | 2534 | 3222 | 1180 | 1354 | 280 | 2942 | 46.02 | 53.08 |
| Rohit Sharma | 5435 | 6427 | 2600 | 2835 | 588 | 5839 | 48.55 | 51.45 |
| Shikhar Dhawan | 3585 | 3931 | 1972 | 1613 | 471 | 3460 | 46.61 | 53.39 |
It is thereby clear that when they’re not hitting fours or sixes, Rahane is almost as good a strike-rotator – deduced from the dot-ball percentage – as Dhawan and eats up a slightly greater number of balls than Rohit.
However, that, by any means, doesn’t qualify Rahane as a slow scorer, be it at the beginning of the innings, in the middle of the innings, or anywhere. At least statistically, Rahane is safe, no matter what the persona or the collective conscience is.
Hence, we have focussed on the average number of runs scored in boundaries as well as in singles, twos, and threes – excluding the unlikely possibility of a five being scored – and have calculated the dot-ball percentage when not scoring boundaries to indicate how often these three batsmen score off a ball.
The only stat that remains here is the number of singles taken by each of these three players, for which not enough data was available to this writer. However, taking into consideration the dot-ball percentage, it can be safely deduced that the player not eating up dot balls is most likely to score off them.
Rahane has been scoring runs whenever he has been asked to, wherever he has been asked to, and he has performed better, in terms of average, since the Bangladesh tour of 2015 than Shikhar Dhawan.
As astounding as that may be to believe, it makes Rahane a first-choice pick, although only marginally ahead of Dhawan, for the opening slot, if only prolific run-scoring is considered. In terms of strike rate too he isn’t behind by much, if the numbers for the same time span – of 81, 83 and 86, for Rahane, Dhawan, and Rohit, respectively – are considered.
It isn’t to be, though. For all we know, a fit KL Rahul might replace Rahane in the eleven, if at all there is a vacancy at No. 4. For Rahul is the next big thing, and Rahane is a thing too big to be noticed. Rahul’s stats have not been included in this analysis because the sample space is too small when compared to the other three. (He has played only six ODIs)
Rohit and Dhawan exude charisma when they bat the top; Dhawan has a penchant for scoring quickly, while Rohit has shown that he can accelerate towards the end of the innings in a manner only a few other openers can in international cricket.
However, the ability to accelerate towards the end cannot be a yardstick to judge or rate opening batsmen, for if they are to play until the end and accelerate in every game, what are the finishers in the team for? It is appreciable that an opener bats out 50 overs, but it is not a necessity.
Rahane’s perceived weakness of not being able to make it big can thus be attributed to the definition of big that is imposed on him. Out of the 71 innings that Rohit has played since 2013 – when he was promoted to the opener’s slot – he has faced more than 150 balls – a yardstick chosen to see how often the batsman goes big and bats beyond the 35th over – on only three occasions.
If you reduce the number of balls faced from 150 to 120, the number for Rohit shoots up to 9. That’s a dismal percentage in the hindsight, and also the one that cannot be held against Rohit for he isn’t mandated to bat until the 50th.
The image and the persona that has been built around flashy and eye-catching players sometimes contributes to the unnecessary loathing of their counterparts and that's what has happened with Rahane. The stats, however, come to his rescue, and you can't really argue with stats, can you?
Collective conscience has had invisible effects on people and the world at large. It is a pity that great men have had to thrive because of the adversities in addition to surviving despite them.