Ajinkya Rahane’s cricket legacy is beyond numbers!

Ajinkya Rahane. Pic/AFP

John Wooden, the legendary American collegiate basketball coach, is credited with famously saying, "The true test of a man's character is what he does when no one is watching."

One can't dispute either the import or the gravity of those words, but how can it not be a test of character when 90,000 people are dissecting your every move in the closed cauldron of a fierce setting such as the Melbourne Cricket Ground?

Ajinkya Rahane faced a sterling examination of his inner steel in December of 2020. The stage was set perfectly - not even the most creative script writer could have conjured the dramatic developments leading up to the second of four Tests for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India had surrendered the day-night opener in Adelaide inside three days by eight wickets. And not just surrendered. They were shot out for 36 in the second innings, their lowest Test tally. Virat Kohli was to leave on paternity leave after Adelaide, and accompanying him on the flight back home was seasoned paceman Mohammed Shami, out of the series with a broken forearm.

On Rahane, the designated vice-captain, fell the onerous task of rallying his troops. Rahane doesn't read the riot act; instead, he takes it upon himself to quell any riot, and thus came one of the most fluent of his 12 Test centuries, in the Boxing Day showdown. It was a magnificent compilation, numerically worth 112, whose value ratcheted up because of the circumstances under which it came and for the outcome it catalysed. Rahane himself applied the finishing touches, bringing up a series-levelling eight-wicket win with an unglamourous single - how boringly archetypal Rahane, you say? - and eventually masterminding an otherworldly 2-1 triumph in a series India had no business winning, considering they played the decider in Brisbane with less than half the first-choice XI that started in Adelaide.

That tour of Australia in 2020-21 was the defining moment of Rahane's chequered Test career, marked by sporadic extraordinary efforts which were sometimes eclipsed by a pronounced and inexplicable struggle for fluency in the familiar environs of home. For all his mastery of the MCG and Lord's, and Wellington and Kingston, only four of his 12 centuries came at home, which explains a modest average of 38.46 from 85 matches. Rahane will be the first to admit that he left a couple of thousand runs behind (5,077 isn't miniscule, let's not forget), and that he has no one to blame but himself for that staggering anomaly.

Rahane's tactical nous and unquestioned man-management skills were tested in only six Tests (won four, drew two), which is a shame because clearly, he had so much to offer as leader and strategist. But he had to operate in the giant shadow of Virat Kohli, the all-round package, and Cheteshwar Pujara, the immovable object, so we should cut him some slack and view him with more kindness than his statistics would dictate.

Zero
No. of defeats for Rahane as Test captain; under his leadership India won four games and drew two

8414
Total number of runs scored by Ajinkya Rahane in 195 international matches (5077 in 85 Tests, 2962 in 90 ODIs, and 375 in 20 T20Is)

Eight
No. of overseas Test centuries scored by Rahane besides four at home