Team India endured a batting collapse in its first innings of the World Test Championship final against Australia on Thursday. India lost half of their batters at Stumps, while putting only 151 on the board. No batter succeeded in breaching the fifty-run mark with Ravindra Jadeja top-scoring (48); this, however, changed in the morning session on the next day as Ajinkya Rahane, who had looked impressive even as he survived an LBW dismissal during Day 2, smashed an impressive half-century.
Rahane, who is making a comeback to the Indian Test team after over a year, displayed exemplary composure against a star-studded, high-on-confidence Australian pace attack. Even as wicketkeeper-batter KS Bharat was dismissed early in the session, Rahane continued to take calculated risks, punishing the occasional bad deliveries from Australia pacers and eventually reaching his half-century with a six over the fine leg boundary.
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Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, who is on the broadcasting team during the WTC Final, heaped praise on the comeback man after his fifty. Gavaskar stated that Rahane has almost always bailed India out of trouble, and had an “assured” presence on the crease.
“Look at the hundreds he scored, they have mostly been when India were in trouble. He has always risen to the occasion; he has a sense of the occasion. He's one of those low-profile players who won't be thumping his chest when he gets to a half-century or a century. He just raises his bat, goes about his business quietly, but assuredly,” Gavaskar said on-air during his commentary stint on Star Sports.
{{/usCountry}}“Look at the hundreds he scored, they have mostly been when India were in trouble. He has always risen to the occasion; he has a sense of the occasion. He's one of those low-profile players who won't be thumping his chest when he gets to a half-century or a century. He just raises his bat, goes about his business quietly, but assuredly,” Gavaskar said on-air during his commentary stint on Star Sports.
{{/usCountry}}Rahane made his way back into the Indian team after Shreyas Iyer – who had replaced the India senior batter at no.5 in the longest format – was ruled out due to a back injury. The 35-year-old's place in the Indian XI was all but confirmed after KL Rahul faced a hamstring injury during the 2023 Indian Premier League season.