ONE of the biggest strengths of Ajinkya Rahane’s cricket is his humility and tremendous respect for the game. The middle-order bat will always come out as an unassuming and modest person on the field and also in private life. This strength has helped him keep his feet on ground and never complain about the lack of recognition to his awesome leadership skills. In wake of this reality, Rahane’s comments about someone else taking credit for decisions he took during the historic series win in Australia assume importance.

 

Rahane is not someone to thump his chest and tell the world that he did something. But the hurt in his statement is palpable this time. Being a silent leader, Rahane has led the team with great success even during critical times like the Australia series. He deserved full credit for the epic turnaround in that series with a third-choice bowling attack in his possession. By Rahane’s own admission he took some more decisions even in presence of regular captain Virat Kohli but never boasted about it. That he had to come out with this comment underlines that the captaincy change episode in Indian cricket had many other interesting sub-plots.