There’s no point playing mind games with Ajinkya Rahane. On Wednesday evening at the Chepauk, Rajasthan Royals’ Ravichandran Ashwin tried to play a trick on the Chennai Super Kings batter and ended up being on the wrong end.
The wily off-spinner stopped in his delivery stride even as Rahane was ready to take strike. Without wasting a minute as Ashwin was ready to deliver the next ball, Rahane moved away from his crease taking the bowler by surprise.
Rahane wasn’t done yet as he came down the wicket and hoicked the third ball for a six. Ashwin though had the last laugh and dismissed Rahane nine balls later.
There’s no doubt that the bold and flamobyant Rahane in his new avatar has added a new dimension to the IPL. He has emerged out of the wilderness with a bang and in the least of the formats everyone expected. So much so that he’s back in the reckoning for the World Test Championship final against Australia in June.
A year after India’s famous resurrection under his leadership in the series Down Under, following a humiliating 36 all out, the team management decided to dump him. If that wasn’t enough, he even had to go through the ignominy of having been released by Kolkata Knight Riders. The Super Kings picked him at last year’s auction at his base price of Rs 1 crore.
He smashed his way to the fastest half-century in this edition off 19 balls against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede last week. The 61 off 27 balls showed there’s still room for class in T20 cricket.
There was no way he could be ignored in their next match against the Royals on Wednesday and Rahane responded with a 31 off 19 balls.
Amol Muzumdar, the Mumbai coach who worked with Rahane, feels it is the “perfect downswing” of his bat which has made a difference in the way he’s striking the ball.
But more than technical, it’s the mental aspect which made the difference. “Don’t forget, the guy has played 82 Tests. He always strives to be as correct as possible. I just helped him with his mental make-up,” Muzumdar told The Telegraph. “Sometimes a little tweak in the mind can see everything fall into place.”
Knee injury restricts MS movement
Chennai: The four-run loss to Rajasthan Royals is not what hurts the Chennai Super Kings the most at the moment, it is their growing injury list which is a cause of headache.
Chennai were already hamstrung with the injuries to pacer Deepak Chahar and all-rounder Ben Stokes. Coach Stephen Fleming on Wednesday revealed that even captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is nursing an injury, while South African pacer Sisanda Magala suffered a split webbing.
“He (Dhoni) is nursing a knee injury, which you can see in some of his movement, hindering him somewhat,” Fleming said.
“He works his way back into match form... So we always have confidence about how he manages himself.”
Magala is out for two weeks, but Chennai will get the services of Sri Lankan pacer Matheesha Pathirana who is back to fitness after being down with Covid-19.
Written with inputs from PTI
