Not fussed about failure against short balls: Ajinkya Rahane

Ajinkya Rahane on Wednesday said the team’s bad run in New Zealand was largely due to the wind factor.

India Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane has defended his team’s batting unit after its horror tour of New Zealand, with the world No 1 side failing to go past even 200 across four innings of the two Tests, which they lost 0-2.

India's Ajinkya Rahane is hit on his helmet. (REUTERS)

The Virat Kohli-led team had won each of the seven Tests in the ICC World Test Championship before the Test series in New Zealand, but despite the whitewash, India remained atop the points table.

Rahane himself endured a forgettable tour, scoring 91 runs in four innings at 22.75 while batting in challenging conditions. The middle-order batsman, known for his rescue acts overseas, was among the Indian batters who had very few answers against the short ball. “Not really, people are speaking too much about it (short balls),” Rahane said while replying to a query as to what was the reason behind India’s collective failure with the bat.

“If you see the Melbourne innings, we have dominated. As Indian batsmen, we all play short balls well; a one off game doesn’t make you bad players of short ball. As a batsman, what I thought there are two ways—if you are looking to counter attack or go defensive and play that situation. Everyone plays that situation differently, you are going to back yourself as a batsman to play in that situation and if you get out, that is fine. But, as long as you are backing yourself in that situation, that is what matters. Ten out of nine times, you will succeed,” said Rahane, who will be a brand ambassador and an investor in MeraKisan, a part of the Mahindra Group.

“It is important to learn what went wrong (while) playing short balls in New Zealand, but as long as I am on that path to improve, if next time the opposition comes and bowls short balls at me and if I feel like hitting it, I will hit. It is all about accessing the situation and playing accordingly. I do not think we have to make too much fuss about short balls, we have been playing them really well in different formats,” Rahane said.

Rahane added that he was not too concerned about his lack of runs. “See, (in the) last seven games I have been scoring runs... West Indies, South Africa, Bangladesh… it is just a one-off bad game. People will have their own opinions and it is not about what people think about me, it is about what I think about myself and I am not playing cricket for what others are saying. For me it is all about what I think about my game. I respect what people talk; yes, they have their opinion and they get paid for their job and I get paid for what I do,” he said.

One of the reasons for India’ s debacle in New Zealand was playing on wickets that were ideal for swing and seam movement combined with bounce, something that Rahane said is not available even during ‘shadow’ tours.

“I feel it is important to have a shadow tour because you get to know the conditions really well. The only thing I feel is the wickets that we get in shadow games are completely different than what we get in international games. That’s an area but you cannot control that when you go overseas. But I feel if we can get similar conditions that we get in international matches, that will be better (for shadow tours).

“The game that I played for India A in New Zealand, that was a complete flat wicket. We lost (only) three or four wickets in two days, so that’s an area to improve. If we can get similar (Test-like) conditions in shadow tours, that will be really great. When we get practice sessions before the Test matches, we actually simulate those conditions. The practice pitches over there were quite similar but practice and match are a different ball-game,” he said.

The 31-year-old said there was not too much to read into India’s failure. “Test Championship is all about one match and one series at a time—one match at a time because points are involved, because one or two bad games will not make us a bad team. We have done a really good job since last three-four years. Now the Test Championship has started, in this journey, you are going to win and lose some matches; it is all about working towards one goal. Personally, I am not too worried. As a team we are not thinking too much. We learnt a lot from New Zealand series,” he said.

Rahane, who has joined Delhi Capitals from Rajasthan Royals ahead of the upcoming IPL, said he was looking forward to the tournament, “It’s just one series (New Zealand tour). Generally, I have done well for the last seven-eight matches. IPL is a different format; you’ve got to express yourself. It gives an opportunity to play fearless cricket and with freedom.”