Ajinkya Rahane has been the toast of the comeback club in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season. Just over two weeks into his maiden stint with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), the right-hander has shaken up the T20 batting manuals with an exemplary array of old-school stroke-making, and a pinch of the shortest format’s ramps and scoops.
Shortly after rocking the Eden Gardens with a whirlwind 71 not out (29 balls) against Kolkata Knight Riders, Rahane was recalled to the India Test squad for its second World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia at the Oval, set to begin a day after his 35th birthday on June 7.
Rahane was in the thick of things in the first WTC cycle, where he was India’s leading run-getter (1149 runs in 30 innings) as it finished second behind New Zealand. This time though, a London trip seemed a far-fetched dream. But a cascade of injuries and the lack of sound options for the No. 5 spot, forced the national selectors to pick Rahane, a month after he lost his BCCI central contract.
READ MORE | Rahane’s WTC final selection: Reward for domestic form or lack of options at No. 5
“The turning point is here (with CSK), I’m getting chances to play. I was not getting opportunities to play one or two years ago. If you don’t play matches, how would you show what shots you have in your arsenal?” he said in the press conference after annihilating KKR, which he represented in 2022.
His Ranji Trophy 2022-23 numbers - 634 runs from seven matches - are laudable but far from the class of a man who has earned 82 Test caps and cracked indelible overseas Test hundreds for India as 62.3 per cent of those runs came in two big knocks against depleted attacks of Hyderabad and Assam.
The IPL offered Rahane the spotlight and the veteran unfurled his combative range without detracting from his core principles.
Tweak at arm’s length
He has also taken off some extra inches of padding while batting in the middle. The trademark, long arm guard, one that is stapled with almost all Rahane memories, is suddenly not to be seen. He has instead used shorter padding, freeing up the elbow.
What prompted Rahane to dump a habit that has been an untenable element in his gear? Has it worked in his revival? Well, it did at least for Rahane’s Mumbai and India senior, Sachin Tendulkar, two decades ago. In 2019, Tendulkar spoke about an incident from 2001 where a hotel security person offered input on his arm guard which impeded his bat swing.
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The security person had then told the maestro, “Sir, I have noticed whenever you wear an arm guard, your bat swing changes.”
Recalling the moment in a video, Tendulkar said: “I don’t think I had spoken about this to anyone in the world. So, I said, ‘Yes! You are the only person in the world who figured that out.’ So, you won’t believe that I came back to my room from the ground and redesigned my elbow guard: the correct size, the right amount of padding and where the straps should be and all that.”
For a batter, who shares a similar compact stance and range through the off-side and the ‘V’ with a controlled bat swing like Tendulkar, Rahane may have encountered a similar deterrent in his game during the lows.
With a picture for reference (below), it seems Rahane had stopped using the long guard that extends beyond the elbow against the red ball since the start of the 2022-23 domestic season in the Duleep Trophy and the Ranji Trophy.
Rahane sported the tweaked, shorter arm guard during the Ranji Trophy earlier this year. | Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI/The Hindu
While it may not be the sole contributing factor to his revival, Rahane has unleashed his repertoire of strokes against the pacers on the on-side this IPL season without the longer elbow guard. Rahane has yet to be dismissed by pace bowlers. He has struck 125 runs against the seamers, with 80 of them coming from just 28 balls through the leg side at an astounding strike rate of 285.71. He has also played the least dot balls (19) among all batters (min. 100 balls faced). A lighter top hand may have helped Rahane to regain his silken smooth touch, especially while attempting his favourite hook and flicks.
Pravin Amre, Rahane’s long-time coach, says: “It’s a personal choice. It’s also about how to minimize the weight, to control the top hand (left hand for Rahane) and that gives you the shape. It’s basically about control. Carrying more weight may affect your batting sometimes and ultimately comes down to feeling better. There are minute details like this. He was getting more lightweight bats this time.”
Amre believes the change has been reflected in Rahane’s fluidity with the bat. “He has really worked on his bat speed, that’s very important to generate power. Moreover, he has focused on his timing. The more you play with the top hand, the more control you gain. The bottom hand will give you the power but will reduce your shape.
FILE: Ajinkya Rahane practising at MCA-BKC Ground with Coach Pravin Amre | Photo Credit: PRAKASH PARSEKAR
“By reducing the arm guard size, it will help you gain more control without losing shape. I think that’s why he’s been able to time the ball very well. His top hand play has also improved because of that,” the former India cricketer observed.
Amre said he had helped Rahane redirect to his past self before the Ranji Trophy season. “We had a couple of sessions. It was more about the mindset, how he can play with more freedom because he’s now got nothing to lose and just wanted to express himself. We talked about how the T20 format is helpful and he was really looking forward to this IPL because there weren’t many takers for him (at the auction), and CSK gave him a second lifeline.”
“I’m not surprised by his performance. His international career started with a T20. He’s the guy who’s got hundreds in the IPL and scored more than 4000 runs. He’s not like me. In fact, he has more experience. It’s just about recollecting yourself sometimes like he has done before in this format. My role was just to show him how he’d performed before. He just has to repeat them. The mindset, the setup. He’s worked on that and if you see, everything looks simpler,” Amre said.
Amre believes Rahane has unlocked fearlessness by losing the padding and reasons why. “It definitely (helps for a fearless mindset) because sometimes we also make them play without helmets to get better sideways, because without your helmet you are more worried about trusting your technique. You watch the ball better because the natural reaction is that your body will always react to save yourself.”
The time away from the national team has helped Rahane and even Ishant Sharma - who plays under Amre at the Delhi Capitals - to introspect and make amends.
“Even Ishant was bowling with the heavier balls to correct his wrist position. Rahane has also worked more on power hitting with heavy balls to hold the shape better and generate better bat speed because this format demands that,” said Amre.
While Amre believes Rahane has just strolled back to his teenage days where he batted for hours without an arm guard, he cautions against it during the WTC final.
“We do not know what pitches would be on offer there. It will be bouncier than the ones used at the end of the season in India. I believe his finest knock was the Lord’s hundred (in 2014). We all know which guard he was using back then (laughs),” Amre said.
Throwback: Ajinkya Rahane celebrates after reaching his century against England at Lords. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Without the arm guard, Rahane has perhaps embraced unfiltered fear again, like Bruce Wayne when he made an unprecedented climb from The Pit, “the worst hell on Earth,” without a rope.
If the ball hits you, you get hit, swallow it and brace for the next one.
As a second wind beckons, India’s silent knight in whites from the last decade would believe that ‘fear is a friend who’s misunderstood.’
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