An affair with batting: Ajinkya Rahane

They say timing is everything. It’s everything in life, in war, in music and in sports. For Ajinkya Rahane, it's his batsmanship and his career. The Drive over the covers, The punch through the point, The chip over the mid-wicket, The pull through the square be what it may, if we take timing the tone out of his batting music all we will ever hear is high pitched shouts of appeals and wickets. Put it in its proper place and watch it with your ears closed, I bet you could hear Beethoven's Symphony. You can keep listening to it all day long and you wouldn't want to stop.

    

A high note in Beethoven's symphony ;)

    He always seems to have a lot of time when he bats. Ironically it wasn't the case when he got the National call up. Waited, he did, for more than a year. Harsha Bhogle once said "I think Ajinkya Rahane is being hired for the bench, just like how the software companies in India hire people for bench". Almost two full seasons he warmed the bench. He saw six new batsmen who weren't in the squad fill a position in the line-up. Time was not on his side. Perhaps it is not uncommon among the middle class people like Ajinkya in India to work so hard and wait so long for an opportunity. But when it eventually did he wasn't the one who was going to miss it. His work ethic and professionalism is phenomenal because you expect someone in bench for so long to be a little rusty and dull. But instead the wait had made him like a wild cat waiting for the right time for attack. You just need to see him on field to understand it, what with the diving stops, the aggressive throws, the brilliant catches. He's all charm and finesse of a ballet dancer with the intensity and aggressiveness of a rugby quarterback.

            Moving to Rajasthan royals was the best thing that could have ever happened to him where under his idol he became a complete player. Opening the innings with Rahul Dravid really opened his doors to international cricket. He rediscovered himself as a batsman and yet nothing about his batting had changed. Just the sheer belief that he can play the shots that he did was what needed and no better master to learn it from than Dravid. He learnt the art of learning and adapting from the master himself. 

  Soon he started out his international career in the shorter formats. His innings always had a pattern to it. He's calm. Doesn't fidget. A look into the heavens with eyes closed. A tuck here for a single, a nudge there for a double and then boom! comes the six over extra cover. It is such a joy to watch him bat. He presents the full face of the bat and some of his shots are just mere extension of defense through the line. Even his swats down the ground looks pleasing because of his timing. In early phases of his career (mind you, it's still early), he always seemed focused and yet couldn't convert his starts and he didn't earn the trust that the captain needed. He got dropped but he kept churning out centuries in the domestic level and kept knocking on the doors of selectors and you just couldn't drop him because he was just too good.  

  Trust and confidence on him was all what he needed and he got it in tests once he got a permanent position in playing eleven when VVS Laxman retired. At a time when Indian batting outside Asia was floundering and 'falling like nine pins' as Ravi Sastri would comment, he stood tall. He conquered the summers of the far East, the West and the North. That innings against Steyn, Morkel and Philander in Durban showed his real mettle that he had surged through the ranks to become a warrior amongst a failing battalion.  

  His new found verve in Australia has taken everyone by surprise. But I think he's always had it in him. Everyone admires this new phase of him. For me the most admirable thing about him is his affair with batting and cricket. It's romantic. It's old-fashioned with a modern twist. Ajinkya Rahane has found a niche for himself in this group of aggressive and powerful batsmen. It's time now to get the big scores and match winning innings in big matches. It's his time now. Because as they say 'Timing is everything'.