An Eye-OPENER

Rajasthan Royals are looking in tremendous form in this year's IPL. Rahul Dravid has been continuing to do what Shane Warne left. He is instilling a sense of self-belief in the lesser known players. Even their overseas players are not all-conquering famous stalwarts of the game. Johan Botha, Kevon Cooper, Brad Hodge, Owais Shah are not really the best or most famous players in the international cricket. Shaun Tait hasn't played yet in all the matches.

It is the mix of domestic and overseas players that has done well combined and that's working for RR. But the real revelation has been the arrival of Ajinky Rahane. He represents Mumbai in domestic fraternity. Everyone in domestic cricket knows what he is capable of in the domestic arena. He is a typical Mumbai batsman carrying over the legacy of the great names that have featured in the playing XI of Mumbai for past so many decades. His technique is rock-solid, he can defend well. But more importantly, he has the ability to convert the opportunities. He can score of good deliveries too and he knows how to pace his innings as per the situation. Something, that is synonymous with the quality of Mumbai batsmen over the years.

When he was selected for the Indian team a year back as a replacement of Virender Sehwag on the English tour, he didn't disappoint. He scored 2 half-centuries as an opener and apart from the deliveries that took his wicket, he rarely seemed uncomfortable in those conditions. When Dhoni and team were vouching for the rotation policy, I strongly feel, Ajinkya should have got a chance. But seems, the selection committee is sticking to its anti-Mumbai policy for selection.

Over the past decade, I have observed that players of Mumbai team are not really considered for selection when it comes to selecting the national team. Earlier, there was a zone-based selection which was abolished later. Now it is said that the selection committee considers the domestic performances and the current form of the player. Not all of it is true. Yes, we do have many brilliant cricketers from other parts of the country. There are consistent batsmen (Manoj Tiwary or Cheteshwar Pujara), brilliant bowlers (Varun Aaron or Ashok Dinda). But just have a look at the Mumbai players. Amol Muzumdar has been consistently scoring tons of runs for past 10-15 years. He had to change his team to Assam because he was being ignored. Wasim Jaffer is the most successful opener in the history of Ranji tournament. Whenever he scores, he scores big. Dhaval Kulkarni has been a outstanding success, post 1st IPL under the guidance of Shaun Pollock. Abhishek Nayar had good all-rounder credentials. Where are these players? Currently only 3 Mumbai players are playing in the national team; Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan and Rohit Sharma. Zaheer was representing Baroda before moving recently to Mumbai. Ajit Agarkar was carted round the park, and we all know what happened to Vinod Kambli.

Having said that, I still feel Mumbai has produced enough players in the past decade who were ignored. In the past, half of the Indian team used to be from Mumbai, and without doubt they all deserved their places. In the 80s, it was probably the golden era for Mumbai Ranji team. Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sandip Patil, Balwindersingh Sandhu, Ravi Shastri were in the Indian team (they also played in the 1983 WC) together. The last time when 3 or more Mumbai players played together for a longer time in national team must have been in 1992 WC. Ravi Shastri, Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, Sanjay Manjrekar (he played with Railways earlier, then switched to Mumbai) played in the 1992 WC in Australia-New Zealand. They also played together in the Test series preceding the WC against Australia. Currently, Sachin-Zaheer-Rohit play together, but that's not in a test match and as mentioned earlier, Rohit Sharma is not a regular test player; though he might get his chance post Dravid's retirement.

Wasim Jaffer was given few chances and he utilised them well. But age is against him and the perception of the selection committee that he is a back-foot player and may not do well in South Africa or Australia has gone against him. Amol Mujumdar was ignored without any reason. Vinod Kambli was given ample chances in the 90s, but more often those were like going and scoring a quick-fire 40-50 needed in 15-20 balls, or when the team was in deep trouble and there wouldn't be any recognised batsman after him. Agreed, he lost his place due to his antics more. But the fact is that he was a batsman who would be more devastating than even Sachin Tendulkar in his prime form. Kambli was India's Brian Lara. If he had kept himself cool and determined like Sachin, he surely would have been the toughest competitor for Sachin and that surely wasn't bad for Indian cricket. Abey Kuruvilla was given a chance when he was close to retirement age. Nilesh Kulkarni was ignored after respectable performances. A couple of years ago, Abhishek Nayar was selected for the national services. He too was later ignored after only a couple of failures. Even Dhaval Kulkarni is seen warming the bench in a good number of series.

What Ajinkya Rahane has done now is that he has scored big in two innings. First a 98 in the opening match for RR and then a brilliant century. In both innings his strike-rate is around 150 which is considered amongst the best in T20. He not just scored fast, he scored by good cricketing shots. His technique, his aggression and his footwork was absolutely brilliant. That he scored 16 fours in his 98 shows that you don't require to rely on big sixes. His placement, his timing and his wrist-work, all were first-class. There are other flamboyant batsmen in the IPL who can score faster, destroy the bowling attack. People like Gayle, Watson, McCullum, Sehwag have done that before and are doing that even now. But to see Rahane scoring those runs, was a pleasing thing. If I was the bowler, I would have not cursed myself because I knew I didn't bowl badly. It was just brilliance at work against me.

So is he the next big thing? Is he worthy successor of Sachin/Sehwag? Is he going to compete with Rohit Sharma / Virat Kohli? Is the opener that India will need after Sachin retires from ODIs? Well, it is too early to predict that with full assurance. But one thing is sure. He will not disappoint you if you pick him. We all could say, he has scored these runs on flat Indian wickets. But remember the T20 WC is in Sri Lanka and those wickets are not too different from the Indian wickets. Atleast we can give him a chance as a third opener, play him in some matches and give the chance he deserves. Sachin doesn't play international T20, so he won't be blocking his place anyway. As the title of this blog-post suggests, Ajinkya Rahane has so far been a real eye-opener and Srikanth and Dhoni should give a thought for him. They picked Ashwin on IPL performances. Now, Rahane should get his due. This is the right time and age for him to get a place in the national team. He may not become another Sachin Tendulkar. That we can leave to Rohit Sharma. But he surely can carve out his own place in the team and has all the abilities to do is.

Come'on BCCI, show some sanity and leave out the anti-Mumbai sentiments for some time. If the person deserves a recognition, no matter which zone/state/team he represents, he should be considered for selection and his performances should matter. Hope Ajinkya becomes the real eye-OPENER for us.