He may not be the most flamboyant character on the field but he is a man of steel. He is definitely not the most aggressive person but he carries his passion in his heart. He may not be at the oppositions' ears after every scalp but look in his eyes you will see a fire burning in them.
When Virat Kohli left the Australian tour midway nobody gave India a chance. The debacle of 36 made so much noise that cricket fans all around the world forgot that a series still remains to be fought for. Among all those selection debacles as well as off field controversies going on the stand in captain Ajinkya Rahane was gearing himself up for his first stint as captain in the tour down under.
Being no bunny with the captaincy stint, the Mumbaikar has been a good reader of the game. Known for his logical approach Rahane falls in the same lot of the old school of classical captains who believe in doing his work by keeping a check on his emotions.
Rahane has been under the pump for running out his captain in the first test. The man who was supposed to be India's all format player has found himself limited to the Whites for his country over the years. And now he has been entrusted in leading the Indian side in the remaining 3 matches.
He started off well by declaring the playing xi a day before showcasing that he wanted experience as well as players who could express themselves on the field. After losing the toss and made to field, Rahane stepped on the field as captain and looked impressive. The bowling changes were effective.Taking a leaf out of Ms Dhoni's unorthodox field placements Rahane made sure that the field placements looked sharp.
If we go through the first two sessions of Australia's batting we could see that 3 out of the 5 wickets came from the astute brilliance of Rahane's field placements.
If we follow the script of the first two sessions:
Opened the bowling with Bumrah and Umesh. Made Bumrah bowl outside of Burn's off stump whereas Umesh was more into getting those lateral movement with his raw pace. The ploy worked as Bumrah had Burns caught out in the corridor of uncertainty.
Ashwin was the first change as Bumrah kept on bowling tight. There was a left handed Wade and Rahane was quick to surround him with close in fielders.The trick played well as Ashwin got the ball to bounce a bit and Wade perished trying to take on Ashwin.
Bumrah was bowling in his last legs of his first spell while Ashwin continued to extract spin and bounce from the not so spin friendly MCG wicket. Rahane deployed a leg slip for Smith as he prefers playing down the leg and thanks to the brilliance of Ashwin he had Smith caught down at leg slip similar to what Ms did in 2012.
Australia were 3 down and a resurgence game followed with Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head carried Australia to lunch. Post Lunch, Rahane brought in Siraj the debutant and made him have a go at the batsmen. The debutant looked a bit tensed and bowled all around the legs. Rahane was quick and went on with a square leg and leg slip, keeping the 3rd slip wide. A few edges flew past the slip cordon but it was evident that the field placements had got into the nerves of the Aussie batsmen.
The results were fruitful too as Bumrah had Head edging one and caught at 3rd slip.whereas Siraj too got his debut scalp by having Labuschagne caught at leg slip keeping Australia 5 wickets down as they headed into tea.
Post Tea too the Indian behemoth continued as Siraj had Cameron Green trapped leg before wicket. Also Ashwin had Paine caught at backward short leg thus breaking the lynchpin of Australia's lower middle order.
The game continues with Australia 7 down and it would be interesting to see whether this Indian team can sweep off the tail quickly or not...
More to follow...
The match is still on. The results may or may not be in our favours yet again but this man has definitely taken a step in the right direction showcasing that this "not so strong " Team India won't go down with a fight...