An important knock: Rahane

Mumbai batsman thrilled to end nine-Test century drought

After ending his longest century-drought phase  – 16 innings spread over nine Tests – Ajinkya Rahane termed his 132 in the first innings of the second Test against Sri Lanka here as an “important” one. His last century (188) was in 2016 against New Zealand at Indore.

The longest the right-hander had gone without a ton before this was the 10 innings between his second Test hundred at Lord’s in 2014 and the Melbourne hundred (147) the following year.

“It was important but as for me I was confident,” said Rahane after the day’s play. “Even throughout that time of not getting a hundred for 9-10 Tests, I was confident about myself. I knew that if I get in, I will get a big one. It was all about thinking positive even throughout that period and coming to Sri Lanka, I was batting well in West Indies as well. So I just wanted to carry that form forward, and batted well in the first innings. I decided if I play positively I will convert it to a big one,” he reasoned.

Rahane termed his ninth career ton as one of the best against spinners. “My focus was to dominate,” he stressed. “We are the No. 1 team and we talk about it in the dressing room. So when the situation (133/3) asks we cannot get into pressure.

Going to bat, I knew a little bit how the wicket was behaving, how much bounce was there and whether it suits my game or not. And the communication between me and (Cheteshwar) Pujara was not to play maiden overs. We hardly played any maiden overs. So we put pressure on them. As day 2 and day 3 come, this will be a difficult wicket to bat,” he explained.

Rahane also shed light on the way they tackled veteran left-arm spinner Rangana Herath, who unlike last time, has failed to make any difference to his team. 

“When we played last time here against Sri Lanka, especially after Galle Test match, we decided that using footwork against him was very important,” he offered. “Here again in the first Test, Shikhar (Dhawan) batted really well, but throughout against him and their spinners we wanted to use our feet so we could get more runs on the backfoot. Especially on this kind of wicket, which is very slow and dry, we knew that if we use our feet we will get more runs on the backfoot. So when I went in to bat with Pujara we decided to change our momentum because Virat got out and we wanted to put pressure back on them and that’s what we did.”

Rahane, however, cautioned against using the sweep shot on the SSC surface. “It’s high risk playing sweep shot on this pitch because bounce is quite variable. Some balls are bouncing and a few balls are keeping low. We know that if they (Lankan batsmen) play sweep shot it’s good for us we have the chance to get wickets.”