Ajinkya Rahane: India’s ‘Iron Warrior’ who braved the testing Australians on the tricky shores of England

Batting on the challenging England pitches isn't everybody's cup of tea, and the ones who survive the mysterious lateral movement and some nasty rib-rattling, further compounded by chin-scarring bounce would usually not last long enough to tell a tale of glory and flames.

In one such bone-chilling narrative of gallantry and panache, Ajinkya Rahane stepped up to the grandest of all occasions, in the glorious World Test Championship final on an occasion when his team members crumbled down like a house of cards caught in the eye of the storm. 

Walking in to bat with India dented early at 50/3 and a deficit of 419 runs to erase, Rahane got off the mark on just his second ball, getting underneath a short ball from Scott Boland to disperse a wristy uppercut to the boundary, a shot that was followed by another nervy pull off Pat Cummins a couple of overs later. If that was simply a prelude to something greater, his response to another wide delivery on the sixth stump from Cummins was a blend of some magnificent timing and most importantly, his positional awareness.

On England surfaces, if there is one shot that batters take pride in, it is a copy-book cover drive that has so many risks linked with it. Yet, Boland was soon stunned as Rahane belted a meaty drive that had the crowd on its feet. 

As Jadeja's resurgence was cut short at the other end close to the end of the second day’s play and KS Bharat lost his wicket on the 2nd ball of the third day, it was eventually Shardul Thakur who chimed in with his own brand of resilience, keeping the Aussie bowlers at bay and also lend a helping hand to Rahane's marathon knock.

Rahane eventually began to deal with Australia’s pace mafia with consummate ease, knocking the cherry around comfortably and occasionally whacking those loose deliveries to the ropes without a second thought. From those convincing pulls to those relentless hooks, Jinks, as Rahane is fondly referred to, proved to be in superlative touch and played a massive role in India avoiding the ignominy of offering Australia a chance to enforce the follow-on. 

The Indian middle-order star batter was eventually removed by Cummins, although much of the credit should be given to Cameron Green, who stuck out his right hand at gully and plucked off a one-handed stunner. Falling agonisingly short of a century by just 11 runs, it was Rahane’s knock that rallied the Indian forces from an almost ineluctable situation, calmly steering the team to eventually put up 296 which was a commendable effort after a relatively shoddy start.