Deconstructing Rahane — 1 yr, 17 ODIs, 13 wins

Yet, the stylish right-handed batsman doesn’t feature in the India ODI team for the tour of England.

Rahane, who has the experience of playing in English conditions, was the preferred player in the number four slot, not too long ago.

 

Ajinkya Rahane, in a recent interview to Sporstar, had expressed his desire to play a leading role in India's campaign at the 2019 ICC World Cup.

However, in what is a major setback for his World Cup dreams, the batsman was dropped by the selectors for the ODI series against England later this year. The inclusion of Shreyas Iyer and Ambati Rayudu over the seasoned batsman has raised a few eyebrows.

Rahane, who has the experience of playing in English conditions, was the preferred player in the number four slot, not too long ago.

The right-handed batsman played the ODI series against South Africa and scored 140 runs in five innings at an average of 35.

In the last one year, Rahane had played 17 ODIs and has scored 725 runs with just one century — 103. His lone ton came against West Indies in Port of Spain in June 2017.

Good record with Rahane

India won 13 of these matches, with Rahane contributing 542 runs at an average of 49.27, considerably better than his career average of 35.26.

But Rahane played three matches against West Indies and one against Sri Lanka — the teams that are struggling to find their feet in the limited overs arena. In the three matches against West Indies, Rahane has scores of 103, 72 and 39 while he just managed five runs against Sri Lanka.

Karnataka Bengaluru 25/04/2018 Chennai Super Kings M S Dhoni in action during the IPL match with RCB in Bengaluru on Wednesday at Chinnaswamy Stadium.. Photo: Sampath Kumar G P

 

Out of the 17 matches, 12 were away from home where Rahane scored 481 runs with a highest score of 103 at an average of 48.1.

In the 2011 series in England, Rahane played five matches scoring 158 runs with a highest of 54 at an average of 31.6 while in 2014 he was in the playing XI for four matches, scoring 192 runs with a highest of 106 at an average of 48. He just scored one century in the tour.

Against England (both home and away), Rahane's record is ordinary. He has played 20 matches and has scored 690 runs with a highest score of 106 at an average of 34.5.

The three-match ODI series against England starts in Trent Bridge on July 12. Lord's will host the second ODI on July 14 while the final match will be played in Headingley on July 17.