Ajinkya Rahane and his Mumbai team are in the semi-final of the Ranji Trophy once again and will aim to stay in the title race to defend it. It has been a fantastic season for Mumbai and Rahane, particularly, who has transformed himself into a T20 superstar since his turn with the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL in 2023. Rahane was the leading run-getter in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and already has 400-plus runs in the Ranji Trophy as well, however, the national recall continued to elude him.
Rahane revealed that he felt bad after he didn’t get picked for the South Africa Test series in 2023-24 even after doing well in the World Test Championship (WTC) final. Rahane had lost his place in the team but made a comeback through the WTC final in 2023 and was the highest run-getter with scores of 89 and 46. However, a couple of low scores on the West Indies tour and Rahane was back on the sidelines.
“I did well in domestic cricket and in the IPL, and was called again. Whenever an experienced player makes a comeback, one knows that he will get 2-3 series. I knew that South Africa was a challenging series and I was expecting a call, but I wasn’t picked. I felt bad because I have been serving for so long,” Rahane told The Indian Express.
Rahane admitted that wanting to come back into the Indian team still keeps him going while mentioning that not just his, scores for batters around the world in Test cricket have dropped, even the top ones. Rahane was asked if there was a communication from the selection committee or the chief selector Ajit Agarkar but the right-handed batter mentioned that he isn’t the one who will ask someone about his place but revealed that the talks didn’t happen.
“I’m not the person who will go and ask why I’m being dropped. There was no communication.
“Many said ‘go and talk’ but one can only talk when the other person is ready to talk. If he is not ready, there is no point fighting. I wanted to talk one on one. I never messaged. I felt odd when I was dropped after the WTC final because I had worked hard for it. I thought I would be there for the next series. There is no point cribbing. I can only do what is in my hands. There is a belief that I will make a comeback,” he added.
The BCCI blooded in fresh faces including Rajat Patidar, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan in the Test team but the results in recent times have been far from ideal, especially in the batting department.
Rahane, if makes it to the final of the Ranji Trophy, would be keen to end the competition with a high score while hoping to continue his exploits in the shortest format in the IPL for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).