Move over Virat Kohli and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. There’s a brand new name being mentioned in the same breath as Sachin Tendulkar, and he isn’t even an active player. Ajinkya Rahane had to wait for his chance in the Indian Test set-up because the No. 5 spot belonged to Tendulkar. Once the great man retired, Rahane entered India’s Test arena and, over the next seven-odd years, became an integral part of the team and the backbone of its middle order. Both hail from the same city, but despite all that Rahane achieved, the gulf between him and Tendulkar was huge. Still, there were little things about Rahane that reminded Steve Waugh, one of the finest captains world cricket has seen, of the Master Blaster.
“I have a question for you. When I saw you, I thought this is a player that most looks like Tendulkar. Did you model your game around Sachin? Because you had that small backlift… very straight and compact. Well-balanced, composed. Was he your role model?” Waugh asked Rahane on the former India cricketer’s podcast.
‘That beautiful straight drive’
Rahane retired from international cricket in July this year, and while he will go down as an integral chapter of Indian cricket, particularly during the glory years when Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara and others formed the star-studded batting line-up, his tally of a little over 5,000 runs from 85 Tests doesn’t quite do justice to what he was capable of. Still, like many before him, Rahane too saw Tendulkar as the gold standard of batting.
“While growing up? Yes, probably everyone’s role model was Sachin Tendulkar at that point in time. Growing up in Mumbai at Wankhede Stadium, watching Sachin bat… playing with my mates in my backyard, I always used to copy Sachin Tendulkar. His backlift, keeping my hands as close as possible and trying to play the straight drive like Sachin, that beautiful straight drive. Everyone enjoyed it. Watching him bat, then got an opportunity to play with him with First-Class team, then in international as well. So he was the role model.”
Waugh: Did you make as much money as Sachin?
Rahane: I’ll probably make it now.
Rahane the better captain, though
The one area where Rahane arguably has the edge over Tendulkar is his record as India’s Test captain. Tendulkar was the greatest batter of his generation, but couldn’t quite crack the captaincy code, leading India in 25 Tests and winning just four. Rahane, meanwhile, never became India’s full-time captain, but as Kohli’s stand-in, he did remarkably well. With four wins and no defeats in six Tests, Rahane finished with a win percentage of 66.6, with his finest achievement undoubtedly being India’s historic Border-Gavaskar Trophy triumph in Australia. In the second Test, Rahane scored a Boxing Day century while leading from the front, helping revive India’s fortunes after the infamous 36 all out in Adelaide.
