Indian cricketer Ajinkya Rahane serves as vice-captain of the country’s Test squad. The right-handed hitter also represents the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League. He made his international debut because of his outstanding results in domestic tournaments. He missed out on several opportunities early in his career, particularly in games with a limited amount of overs, which also hurt his chances of playing in Test matches. Despite a sluggish start, he has displayed class as a Test batsman. He is even already heralded as the new Mr. Dependable and is anticipated to replace the void left in Indian cricket by Dravid’s retirement. Despite the fact that his lone T20 century came in an IPL game rather than an international one, he has achieved hundreds in every format of the game.
Early Childhood & Life
Madhukar Baburao Rahane, a civil engineer who works at BEST, and Sujata Rahane welcomed Ajinkya Madhukar Rahane into the world on June 6, 1988, in Ashwi KD, Ahmednagar district. His sister Apurva and younger brother Shashank are members of his family.
Because they could not afford a better camp, his father had taken him to a cricket camp in Dombivli when he was seven. His mother used to carry his kit bag and his younger brother while taking him there on foot because she couldn’t afford to pay for auto fare every day.
From SV Joshi High School in Dombivli, he received his secondary school diploma. He was a third-year B.Com student when he got selected for the Indian Test team.
Residential Career of Ajinkya Rahane
During the early 2007 India U-19 tour of New Zealand, Ajinkya Rahane, who started training with former India batsman Pravin Amre at the age of 17, achieved two centuries. This aided in his selection for the Mohammad Nissar Trophy in Pakistan, when he scored 143 against Karachi Urban in his maiden first-class encounter.
He made his Ranji Trophy debut for Mumbai during the 2007–08 season, scoring 172 against the England Lions, and then contributed 1089 runs to the team’s title-winning campaign the following year. He exceeded 1000 runs in three seasons and made three centuries in each of the following two, with his highest first-class score being against Hyderabad in the 2009–10 season at 265 not out.
His selection for India’s Test squad was influenced by his 152 runs against Rajasthan in the 2011 Irani Trophy match. He was selected for the Indian ODI team for the tour of England in 2011 after scoring two hundred in the Emerging Players Tournament in Australia in the same year.
Worldwide Career of Ajinkya Rahane
On August 31, 2011, Ajinkya Rahane scored fifty runs in a T20 match against England. On September 3, 2011, also in the NatWest Series, Rahane made his ODI debut against England. He had a strong start, but he fell flat in the latter ODI and T20 series against Pakistan, England, Sri Lanka, and the West Indies.
He was selected for the West Indies Test squad in November 2011, but his limited-overs debut had to wait till 16 months later owing to poor play. Seven of his colleagues made their Test debuts at this time, which he observed.
On March 22, 2013, he was eventually given his chance to play in a Test match against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy due to Shikhar Dhawan’s injury and Gautam Gambhir’s illness. Despite playing poorly in that game, he was chosen for India’s tour of South Africa, where he placed third in terms of runs scored, including a 96 off 157 balls.
When India was down to 156-5 against New Zealand on February 15, 2014, Rahane helped the side to a good score with his first test century, but Brendon McCullum’s triple-century ended the game.
In 2014, Rahane took Rohit Sharma’s position on India’s England tour. In the second Test match at Lord’s Cricket Ground, Rahane once more saved his team from a 140-6 collapse with another century.
He managed to get his second fifty in ODIs during the 2013–14 Asia Cup, but he struggled in the middle order and, after making two centuries at the top, lost the spot to Rohit. After underwhelming in the T20 World Cup, he was dropped for the series against Bangladesh but was named captain of the second-order team for the ODI series against Zimbabwe, which India won 3-0.
In the 2014–15 Border–Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, he kept up his impressive play in Test matches and made 399 runs in four games, including one century and three fifties. He set a record by taking 8 catches in the first game of India’s 2015 tour of Sri Lanka, then he hit a century in the second game to move up to a career-high 20th position in the ICC Player Rankings.
When he hit hundreds in both innings of the fourth test of the 2015 Freedom Series against South Africa on a challenging pitch that most batters battled on, he set a new record. He maintained his form all season, rising to eighth place on the ICC Test Batsmen’s list on August 16, 2016.
India’s 33rd Test Captain Virat Kohli led the squad when the regular captain went down with an injury in March 2017, and the team prevailed in the low-scoring game with contributions from both innings.
Despite scoring a century in Sri Lanka in August 2017, he only managed to score 17 runs in five innings in the follow-up series, and his name was left off the roster for the first two Tests against South Africa in 2018.
Career in IPL
Ajinkya Rahane was initially thought to be unfit for the IPL T20 and received little playing time with his first side, the Mumbai Indians, but Rajasthan Royals (RR) coach Rahul Dravid allowed him to open, which completely altered his playing style. With performances including a match-winning 98, an undefeated 103, and 84 off 63 balls, he was the top run scorer for RR in 2012.
Recognition & Achievements
The “Arjuna Award” was given to Ajinkya Rahane in 2016. In 2006–07, he was awarded the “M. A. Chidambaram Trophy for best Under–19 Cricketer,” and in 2014–15, he was recognized as the “CEAT Indian Cricketer of the Year.”
He is the seventh Indian batsman to reach the century mark in every Test innings. He also holds the record for the most catches in a Test; in a match against Sri Lanka, he made 8 catches.
He was the first player in the IPL to score six fours in a single over.
Personal Legacy & Life
On September 26, 2014, Ajinkya Rahane married Radhika Dhopavkar. His friends and coworkers from the cricket community attended the reception that followed at the MCA. Despite the fact that it was an arranged union, they had been friends since they were teenagers.
Estimated net worth
In 2022, Ajinkya Rahane will have a net worth of Rs. 65 crores ($9 million).
Trivia
The owner of the cricket camp showed Ajinkya Rahane a black-and-white photo of Sachin Tendulkar and asked if he wanted to play with him one day during his first visit. His father was ashamed to hear the 7-year-old respond “yes,” but was ecstatic when he did so in 2011.