On his return to the side, Ajinkya Rahane scored a gritty 89 to lead India’s fightback.© AFP
Ajinkya Rahane‘s return to the Indian team for the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia has been a topic of debate within the cricketing folklore. Rahane, who dropped from the team after the two-match Test series against New Zealand in January 2022, was recalled to the side after his exploits in the domestic circuit, as well as the Indian Premier League. On his return to the side, Rahane scored a gritty 89 to lead India’s fightback against a dominant Australian side.
During his knock, Rahane also went past the milestone of 5,000 Test runs.
Former Australia head coach Justin Langer, who is on commentary duty for the ongoing WTC Final, made a shocking revelation regarding Rahane from the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Langer, who was head coach of the during that time, revealed that prior to the series, legendary Australia captain Steve Waugh had called him to tell that he had been mentoring Rahane.
“Before the series started Steve Waugh, my hero, he rang me and said I was going to be transparent. I wanna be honest I’m having some conversations with Rahane…doing a bit of mentoring him leading to that series,” Indian Express quoted Langer as saying on-air.
Langer added that his nightmare came true when Rahane inspired India’s comeback series win on Australian soil.
“Not Steve Waugh, the iceman and we saw that calmness in Rahane, we saw the way he played in that series and when I knew he was talking to Steve, it was red flags for me,” he added.
Topics mentioned in this article