Of course, Rayudu's consistency makes him a worthy contender for the Indian team. He's had a phenomenal run in the last domestic season and what's important, he's made every opportunity count — be it for Baroda, West Zone or Rest of India.
The same, however, can't be said of Rahane. For a thoroughbred straight out of the famed Mumbai School of batting, the right-hander made a forgettable Test debut against Australia earlier this year after waiting close to two years for a spot in the playing XI.
"When a batsman scores 1000-plus runs for six seasons on the trot in domestic cricket like Ajinkya has done, he has to be special," says Pravin Amre, who has seen the batsman from close quarters.
That said, there are no doubts over Rahane's credentials as a quality player. But with the selectors giving him a cold shoulder for the Champions Trophy and now the Tri-series in the Caribbean, the 25-year-old has no option but to start from scratch to script a comeback to the Indian team.
Rahane had made his debut for Mumbai when Amre was the coach. After getting a hundred in his first game, he registered a string of low scores and that is where Amre's mentoring helped. He instilled in the youngster the virtues of hard work and like a good student Rahane practised what his tutor preached.
There has also been some ambiguity over Rahane's batting position. He's opened the batting for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy and also batted at No. 3. For India too he opened in the one-day internationals and T20s.
But in the lone Test that he played, he was sent in at No. 5 even as Dhoni chose to open the batting with Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay. Is it time for him then to stick to a position and make it his own?
"Although he's always been a top-order player, he's comfortable batting anywhere in the order. These are the challenges of modern-day cricket and he's ready to meet it, much like Rohit Sharma has done in the ODIs," says Amre. Ironically, Rohit's recent success as an opener in the ODIs has hurt Rahane's chances even more.
Amre has now become a tennis-style coach (he's working on an individual level with Robin Uthappa and Suresh Raina), but he wasn't willing to point out the chinks in Rahane's technique.
However, he feels that the batsman stands at an important juncture of his career after missing out in recent times. "Every player goes through poor form at some point of his career. With the India 'A' squad scheduled to travel to South Africa soon, he has to make it count. Scoring runs on South African pitches will be a crucial factor," pointed Amre.
0 comments:
Post a Comment