India vs WI: Rahane close to ending century drought, eyes for second innings

Rahane silenced his critics with a much-needed 81 on a pacer-friendly track as wobbly India reached 203 for 6 against the West Indies

He is that kind of a calm wind that soothes everyone with a new sense of freshness. He is someone who resembles more to the cricketing legend Rahul Dravid and is right now like a wall of the Indian Test team and knows how to keep the team floating in a difficult situation. Looks like his career was "jinxed" from past one year, but today he returned with respect and fought with his head held high as India marked its very first game of World Test Championship against host West Indies. He is no one but our very own "Jinx", Ajinkya Rahane.

When everyone failed on the Day 1 of the test match against West Indies in North Sound on Thursday, it was Rahane who stood up. Rahane silenced his critics with a much-needed 81 on a pacer-friendly track as wobbly India reached 203 for 6 against the West Indies on a rain-hit opening day of the World Test Championship encounter. Only 68.5 overs of play was possible on the day as inclement weather led to multiple interruptions but not before Rahane played one of the most defining knocks of his international career which seemed to be at crossroads due to consistent failures.

Rahane had a couple of useful partnerships, 68 for the fourth wicket with opener KL Rahul (44 off 97 balls) and 82 for fifth with Hanuma Vihari (32 off 56 balls) which put the innings somewhat back on track although they aren't still out of woods. However, all three players were guilty of throwing away their wickets after getting set. Especially, Rahane who was desperate to get his 10th Test hundred and first in more than two years.

Century drought for Rahane

It's been over two years now that Rahane has not got a century and again this time, he had to leave at 81. But it was his humbleness to say that the century didn't matter to him but his team and the country that he is playing for. Rahane who claims to love to play at number 4 was sent at 5 during the Day 1 of the test match. But as we all can see he has given his best shot. Usually, Rahane is a kind of batsman who needs a quick start to get the things going according to his will. But this time around we saw a different scenario which quite surprised a lot of fans.

Rahane seemed to stay away from all types of risks and for the four over at the beginning of his innings, he held to one end by Jason Holder for straight four maiden overs. There were instances where he took single against the other bowler before he managed a run off Holder and then he scored just one run off 30 balls.

This was the innings where Rahane was prepared for all types of odds to not produce any kind of counterattack. He made up his mind to follow the strategy of "wait and watch". And Holder didn't give him anything. Rahane also talked about the pitch being too sticky along with some sideways movement.

Though the run-rate was very slow, Rahane was playing his game maturely. He faced trouble from all the bowlers but it seemed that he was in 90 percent control of himself all the time.

When World's number 1 test side was down for 25 for 3, seeing a puzzled skipper walking off to the pavilion, the camera zoomed in to the keeper of the team, Rahane and he was seen saying "watch the ball, closely". There have been many instances when Rahane was seen talking to himself, calming himself down during the pressure situation. He has many a time mentioned the process of visualization and meditation and when pushed to a corner, these mutterings came back as a form of visualization and it was his form of meditation.

Tests are for comebacks!

As we all know that Test matches are the real essence of cricket and only this format has the capacity to give any player the much-needed comeback one may need. It asks you questions and gives you the chances to find answers that you missed the last time. And this same thing has happened with Rahane as he has successfully managed to negate the tough phase of his life when Miguel Cummins happened. There were enough loose deliveries from him when the ball was pitched to full length and Rahane's lifted them back to his zone.

Even after playing 29 innings, his century is still awaited. Skipper Kohli has complete confidence in the player and believes that he is the perfect man who can be called 'Mr. Dependable'. And that is why he dropped Rohit Sharma and preferred Rahane over him. It is definitely not the time to underestimate West Indies for the Test Championship as the opposition is playing at home. Now the fans are keen to see Rahane try to end his century drought and justify Kohli's choice. But he will always do what he is needed to do... " watch the ball, closely" because, life "Tests" you!

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