Ajinkya Rahane's Test Cricket Comeback: WTC Final 2023

WTC Final 2023 : Ajinkya Rahane’s comeback in Test cricket

Ajinkya Rahane has made his comeback in the red ball cricket against Australia in the World Test Championship 2023 Final. He got selected after his brilliant performance in IPL 2023. He is a crisis man for India and is back to what he does best as he once again fights hard to take India out of trouble with a good knock at the Oval. On Friday, he became the first Indian cricketer to hit a fifty in the final of the WTC. He took India past 200 and played a crucial partnership with Shardul Thakur for the seventh wicket.

The right-handed batter was dropped from the Indian team after January 2022 and has made a comeback after 18 months. Ajinkya last played a match for India during the Test series vs South Africa at the start of 2022. Cricket fans and former players are impressed by his comeback in Test cricket. Australia made a huge 469 in the first inning and the Indian batters could not put up a great fight. However, Rahane scored 89 runs as he led a fightback for India and built a strong partnership with Shardul Thakur. 

On his comeback to Test cricket, Ajinkya Rahane not only played a supportive knock but also achieved a milestone of 5000 runs in Test cricket. He took 141 innings and 83 Test matches to reach this milestone. He is one of the best middle-order batters in tests for India 00in this generation and is known for his elegant batting style and solid technique. He became the 13th Indian player to achieve this feat after the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. He needed 69 runs to reach this mark in the ultimate Test and completed the feat while playing the superb knock of 89 runs. 

He went through the rough patch of his life as he was out of the national team for quite some time. However, he didn’t let the difficult time affect him mentally in fact he worked hard in domestic cricket. Rahane said in an interview “It was an emotional moment for me when I got dropped. The support from my family was massive. The dream was still to play for India and that’s what I told my family”. He has a good domestic season as he scored 634 runs from 11 innings in the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy. 

By playing this brilliant knock in a difficult situation in the WTC final, Ajinkya Rahane has announced his comeback and proved that his Test career is not yet finished. He has a lot of potential to play red-ball cricket and his experience of Test cricket brings a proven performance in overseas conditions, even in England. Hope after this comeback inning, he will get considered for India in upcoming contests as well.