Following a lean patch with his bat, 34-year-old Maharashtra-born batsman, Ajinkya Rahane finds himself got out of contention for international cricket for the first time in the last decade. One of the mainstays of the Indian batting in the last decade or so, Rahane was given a long rope from the team management. However, he wasn’t able to repay their trust at all.

Therefore, Ajinkya Rahane will now be facing a stiff challenge to earn his place back into the Indian Test Team by doing well in the local circuit. In the last couple of years, Rahane has been a pale shadow of himself and has failed to score a single century since his MCG heroics in 2020. In 2021 & 2022 combined, Ajinkya Rahane played 15 Tests scoring only 547 runs (3 fifties) at a poor average of 20.3 runs per dismissal.

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Resultantly, Rahane was dropped when Team India played against SL, and more recently, the rescheduled Test against Ben Stokes’ England. Following the 2022 T20 World Cup, India is scheduled to tour Bangladesh in November and December for a series comprising 3 ODIs and 2 Tests.

However, not all is lost for the star batsman from Maharashtra. According to the latest reports of the Times of India (TOI), Rahane has been asked to regain his form by playing domestic first-class tournaments in India.

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Ajinkya Rahane can still earn his place back into the squad for the 2023 Border-Gavaskar Trophy if he finds his form back in Duleep Trophy 2022 (September 8 to 25) and more importantly, Ranji Trophy 2022-23 (December 13 onwards).

Notably, Ajinkya Rahane is yet to return to competitive cricketing action since he picked up a hamstring injury while turning up for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) during the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League.