‘Back your gut feeling’
MUMBAI: In a career-defining performance, Ajinkya Rahane slipped effortlessly into the shoes of Virat Kohli, both at the No. 4 batting spot and as captain, helping India script history in Australia by retaining the Border-gavaskar Trophy. The performance of the India team will go down as one of the glorious tales of world cricket, with Rahane’s men being spoken about in the same breath as the great entertainers from the West Indies, Frank Worrell’s team of 1960-61. Like Worrell’s men, they took Australia by storm with their daring brand of cricket; playing with both grit and flair, playing both hard and fair. The reserved and soft-spoken Rahane led the team aggressively and astutely. “Batting at No. 4, was a challenge as well as a responsibility, and I thought it was the best opportunity for me to stand up, send that message,” he said. Excerpts: quick runs here, then we have a game on our hands, and (then) see what happens. I told Cheteshwar to continue to play his normal cricket, but I will look for runs. If I can carry on, if we have to chase 150-160 in the last session in 38 overs, it is quite chaseable. That’s what happened. That partnership between Pujara and Shubman set up the game. Then Pujara and Rishabh’s partnership and then Rishabh and Washington’s partnership. Initially, we were only looking to play one session at a time, but in the last session the message was clear (to go for the target), but play normal game, play normal cricketing shots.
It started from the practice game. I was just thinking if we set this field, what will happen? (If we) attack the stumps and cut down their runs on the leg side and just look to build that pressure with dot balls, we will see what happens. That worked in the practice games; in small periods it really worked. Then once the Test matches started, we had our bowling meetings, then we discussed how we are going to go about it. That’s when we decided this is our plan as a team and we should back it. wickets (Matthew Wade and Smith). Jasprit Bumrah bowled really well so that plan really worked.
We were confident about playing good cricket. We were not worried about the result. That’s what we did. That’s how we came back into the series at Melbourne. Our thought was all about playing good cricket, showing good attitude, showing that character on the field. That helped us a lot. That’s what we decided: let’s play five days of good cricket and then whatever the result is we will accept it. Be strong, be together as a team and play as a team.
who is delivering in which situations, who is reacting differently in different situations. I was just observing that. When it came to Adelaide, Virat was the captain. So, I was taking a back seat. From Melbourne onwards, I knew what I had to do. I was clear in my head on what plans I had. On batting at No.4, it was a challenge as well as a responsibility, and I thought it was the best opportunity for me to stand up, send that message and contribute for the team.
Was really blank when that run out happened. I knew we were both going really well, and if we had continued…they were on the back-foot. I felt bad. Once I went in, I told sorry to Virat and he was fine. He was like “it’s ok, let’s focus on how we could get better from here”. On the 36 all out, everyone was disappointed. No one expected that. We had to move on, and not think too much about it. We only had 3-4 days for the next Test.
The situation was different, we were 0-1 down in the series. We were looking to come back. There was pressure. We were three down for 60; we needed to build a partnership.
At that point of time, I was just looking to enjoy the moment. I wanted to feel that pressure, enjoy that pressure, and be in that zone. I wasn’t thinking of any personal achievement, or milestone. I just wanted to be there for the team, build partnerships, and take the team to a good position.