WTC Final 2023: Chennai Super Kings or rather MS Dhoni has habit of giving players rebirth. No matter how badly he would struggle but under MSD, all players get their self-belief back and perform to perfection. India Cricket Team discard Ajinkya Rahane also hit the restart button after being dropped from the Test team. But with some good scores in Ranji Trophy and his emergence as a T20 player in IPL 2023 have helped him earn a recall. But it would not have been possible if Rahul Dravid had not made a phone call to Dhoni. It was the CSK captain’s insight on Rahane that helped him earn a spot in India Squad WTC Final. Follow India vs Australia World Test Championship Final LIVE Updates on InsideSport.IN.
“Ajinkya was always part of the plan when Shreyas got injured. He has the experience of playing in England and has been successful too. But of course, he was not in the setup for a year or so. We had only seen how he performed in the Ranji trophy. That is why Rahul turned to MS for his inputs,” a senior BCCI official explained to InsideSport.
How did Rahane earn a recall?
The team management, especially Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma were keen to hand Rahane another chance after Shreyas Iyer was ruled out of WTC Final with injury. While Sarfaraz Khan had backed up his case with tons of runs in the domestic circuit, he looked clueless against express pace in the IPL.
He looked bamboozled against Mark Wood’s pace against Lucknow Super Giants. That put the final nail for the Mumbaikar. Among other options were Suryakumar Yadav. However, he was not going through a good run of form and neither did he play a lot of red-ball games. To make things complicated, SKY did not have Test matches under his belt in England.
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Hence, old gun Rahane emerged as the best possible option for the one-off Test at the Oval, starting June 7. Rahul Dravid made a call to ask about Rahane and how he was doing in the nets.
MS Dhoni responded in the affirmative. CSK captain gave some inputs on his batting after Rahane joined CSK camp. It worked wonders. A carefree approach and the freedom to play the way he wants, helped him succeed. With inputs from Dhoni, Dravid was happy to see him back in the squad.
“We realise the potential of someone when we allow him to bat the way he bats. We give him freedom, give him the best position. In a team environment, someone has to sacrifice his slot to allow the others to get more comfortable, and allow the team to succeed,” MS Dhoni said of Rahane.
Since being snubbed from the Test team after a string of poor shows, Rahane worked on his game in the domestic circuit. Rahane scored 634 runs in 11 innings at an average of 57.64 including two centuries and a fifty.
For CSK, he has turned out in a different avatar altogether. In 5 matches, he has scored 209 runs at an average of 52.25. But it’s his staggering strike rate that would put even designated finishers at shame. Rahane has managed a strike rate of 199.05, the league’s best playing over 100 deliveries.
But it’s not the strike rate that has caught the attention. A defensive player like Rahane has changed his shot selection. He has played scoops, reverse sweeps, ramps, and even slog-sweeps that he generally doesn’t.
“I’ve enjoyed all my knocks so far, I still feel the best is yet to come. It is a great learning, I’ve played under Mahi bhai for India for many years, and now even at CSK it has been a great learning. If you listen to whatever he says, you will more often than not perform,” Rahane said.
With squad selection already done, Rahane has begun practicing with red ball in between CSK practice sessions. However, whether he finds a place in the Playing XI is on Dravid and Rohit. With Shubman Gill and KL Rahul top contenders, Rahane can only find a place if Rahul keeps wicket.
India squad WTC final: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, K L Rahul, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.
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