Transformed Ajinkya Rahane Says “The Best Is Yet To Come” after scoring second fifty of IPL 2023
Reflecting on his performance, Ajinkya Rahane said that he is enjoying his current phase and wants to let the bat do the talking. The 34-year-old against KKR on Sunday at Eden Gardens emerged as a batsman who has transformed.
Batting at a strike rate of 244.83, he scored 71 in just 29 balls as the Chennai Super Kings racked up 235/4 in 20 overs against Kolkata Knight Riders. Rahane’s rampaging innings took his team to a match-winning total and helped CSK thrash his old team KKR by 49 runs.
Incidentally, Rahane played for KKR last season and he could only score 133 runs in the seven matches that he played. His strike rate was also below 105. But this season, he is a man transformed.
Rahane’s Confident Conversation Post-Match
Rahane, who reached his 50 in 24 balls and scored 21 off the last five deliveries he faced, also hit five sixes as well as six fours overall. But it was not all brute power and throwing his bat at everything. Some of the shots he played were proper cricketing shots with subtle dollops of improvisation.
During the post-match press conference, he said that “I really enjoyed my knock, but I feel my best is to come. I really want to continue this form. For me it is all about timing the ball and playing proper cricketing shots. It is about backing my game rather than trying to copy someone else. It is important to back one’s own method.”
Rahane also did not shy away from crediting captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni for his success this season. At the same time, he also highlighted how he is thriving on the freedom he has been getting at CSK.
He said “I am finally getting a chance to play. If you see one or two years back, I was not getting a chance to play. If I can’t play consistently then how will I show how I can play and what shots I have in my arsenal? I want to be in the moment, live in the present, and take it one match at a time. I want to let my bat do the talking.”
Sehwag’s Dig At Dhoni-Rahane Relation At Chennai
Earlier in the tournament, Dhoni had said about Rahane that “Me and Jinks [Rahane] spoke right at the start and he asked me what I expect and have in mind for him. I told him to play to his strengths. He is not someone who will consistently hit sixes but you can use your ability to manipulate the fields. He is very sound technically. I told him to go and enjoy, don’t take the stress and we’ll back you.”
However, earlier in the tourney, Virender Sehwag had spoken about Dhoni-Rahane and he saw the issue differently. He questioned, “What did Dhoni see in Ajinkya Rahane that he kept him in the IPL team, but didn’t play him for India?”
Sehwag further said that “Players need confidence. But I’m asking Captain Dhoni. When he was the captain of the Indian team, he didn’t keep him in the one-day team, saying ‘he is slow. He can’t rotate the strike. Now, suddenly, when he needed experience, he brought in Ajinkya Rahane.”
