'I was playing ODIs continuously. Suddenly, I got dropped': Rahane says he 'hardly got game time' playing one format

The 33-year-old believes that a lack of regular playing time has proved detrimental to his form of late.

Ajinkya Rahane has been going through a rough patch over the twelve months. The right-handed batter, who was removed as the vice-captain in the longest format in December, had scored only 479 runs in 13 Tests at a disappointing average of 20.83 in 2021. This year, Rahane played in both Tests against South Africa in January, scoring only 68 runs with one half-century.

India's batsman Ajinkya Rahane in action during the third and final test match between South Africa and India in Cape Town. (AP)

One of the senior-most batters in the Test team at the moment, there have been calls to remove Rahane as well as Cheteshwar Pujara, who had been struggling with a lean patch in the Test setup as well. The 33-year-old, however, believes that a lack of regular playing time has proved detrimental to his form of late.

“Sometimes, the reality is, when you play only one format and especially in the last 2-3 years where there is no Ranji cricket and no other domestic games, I think that needs to be taken into account because you can't score runs sitting at home,” Rahane said on Backstage with Boria.

Ranji Trophy was last held in 2019/20; the 2020/21 edition was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the current season was further delayed due to a sudden surge in Omicron cases across the country. However, the BCCI confirmed earlier this month that the domestic tournament will begin on February 17.

The Indian batter further mentioned that he had been performing well in both ODIs and Tests between 2014-2017 but “hardly got game time” later.

"Before that, I was playing ODI cricket continuously for Team India and I was doing really well. Suddenly, I got dropped, I don't want to go into that, I don't want to go into my past but the reality is I was playing well in 2014, 15, 16, and 17. ODI and Test cricket both were going really well. After that I hardly got game time, there was a huge gap between Test matches," said Rahane.