Numbers don’t capture Ajinkya Rahane

Ajinkya Rahaneretired from international cricketon Thursday, signing off as “Cap 278”. He leaves with 85 Tests, 90 ODIs, 20 T20Is and more than 8,000 international runs. The numbers do him injustice. There was a stretch, deep into the last decade, when Rahane’s batting belonged in the company of that of Virat Kohli, Joe Root, Kane Williamson. M S Dhoni once said his gift was “the timing… and his ability to exploit gaps in the field”. He never built the mountain of runs that talent seemed to promise, and that gap, between what he could do and what he actually left behind, is the real story of his career. Perhaps the reassurance he sought from team management never quite came, and he felt the pressure to hold his place during Kohli’s reign as captain. Handed the captaincy in Australia after the ignominy of 36 all out at Adelaide in December 2020, Rahane walked out at the MCG and made a century that turned the series. India went on to win it 2-1, one of the great away triumphs in the game’s history. It should have been the beginning of something larger. Instead, he was stripped of the vice-captaincy within a year, and out of the side not long after, returning only once more, for the 2023 World Test Championship final at The Oval. Rahane leaves as he played: Understated, gifted, and never quite paid in full for either.