One day after he admirably mustered his troops on the field, Ajinkya Rahane marked an invaluable century of adversity to put India in a commanding position in the second test at Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The undefeated 104 came as a fitting balm after the pain inflicted by humiliation in Adelaide last week. With an 82-run, five-wicket lead in hand at the end of Day 2, India could now dream of leveling the series.
And the man behind the dream is Rahane.
On Saturday, he made all the right decisions as captain. He highlighted his daring and calm. On Sunday, he played the correct shots as captain. It was his bloody mentality, the clarity of the punches and the stomach for a fight that stood out.
This could prove not only the defining blow of Rahane’s career, but also one of the best an Indian hitter has ever composed overseas. Maybe not in volume yet, but definitely in impact. It could potentially shape the match, the series, and extend the lifespan of a generation that would have been dismantled if India had replayed an encore of Adelaide’s capitulation.
With the game on the brink, the series on the brink, a generation on the fence, his own stagnant career, facing a high-class bowling team, Rahane rose to his feet.
The more variables you interweave, the brighter your hundred winnings will have. So much so that the effort deserves to be mentioned at the same time as Virat Kohli’s hundreds of twins in Adelaide (2014), or Cheteshwar Pujara’s 106 in Melbourne (2018), or Sourav Ganguly’s 144 in Brisbane (2003). Or if India could orchestrate a radical change in the series, it would inspire the same awe as Rahul Dravid’s 233 (Adelaide, 2003), considered the best by an Indian hitter on Australian soil.
It was invaluable for several reasons. This was India’s first entry after the capitulation in Adelaide. Even though India had scored twice as many runs as they did in the second inning in Adelaide when they came out to bat off Shubman Gill’s knockdown, they were 61/2, far from a position of authority. The Australian bowlers breathed fire, and could have swallowed the rest of the batting signature in their fury.
India needed someone to fight fire with ice. Rahane was that man. In his early days, he had a reputation for being a man of crisis, before falling into a period of confusion. Since the 2018 tour of South Africa, he has been a largely peripheral figure in test matches abroad. Except for a century against the West Indies, it had for the most part been unremarkable. On his last tour of Australia, he managed just 217 races with a meager 31 average. There was a time when India feared losing him, when he was on the verge of being cut off. The fears now seem unjustified. Rahane is reborn.
Most unexpectedly, it did not make India long for, or even miss, Kohli. It was a day when India didn’t need Kohli. Because they had Rahane. His batting ability is different from Kohli’s, but the courage he exudes was similar to Kohli’s. He was prepared to fight, and he did, from the first to the 200th ball he faced on Sunday. At no point in the game did he give up the will to fight.
His composure in adversity and lower-order herding were similar to VVS Laxman’s. As the virtuoso of Hyderabadi, there was an air of equanimity about him. Whether you’ve been hit or hit a boundary, your expression remains the same. His ability to lift his batting when he pushed for the captaincy was reminiscent of Steve Waugh.
Coming into the match, he had been far from fluid, but he struggled to get out of trouble. He wasn’t always pretty to look at, and he got through the difficult phases of the game. In the end, it lifted the post-Adelaide blues and surpassed some milestones as well. He became the second hitter to score two hundred for MCG.
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