Rahane is not a part of India’s 15-member squad that will travel to England and Wales for the World Cup, and thus he will have time on his hands during the nearly two-month-long marquee tournament.

According to reports in the Indian media, Rahane has written to the board asking for permission to get some game time in during this period, before India’s tour of West Indies later in the year and the start of the Test Championship.

JUST IN: There is no room for Rishabh Pant in India's #CWC squad.

Full squad details ⬇️https://t.co/fnSR3abdMr

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) April 15, 2019

Hampshire had previously signed Dimuth Karunaratne as their overseas player, however, the Sri Lankan was asked by his country’s board to participate in Sri Lanka’s domestic 50-over tournament to build his game ahead of the World Cup, in which he will be leading his side.

Karunaratne was later replaced by South Africa’s Aiden Markram in February, who will be available to play both red-ball and white-ball cricket until early May.

[caption id=”attachment_103986″ align=”alignnone” width=”800″] Hampshire has turned to Ajinkya Rahane after both of Dimuth Karunaratne and Aiden Markram got World Cup call-ups[/caption]

The South Africa opening batsman was recently named in his country’s World Cup squad, and with both of Karunaratne and Markram unavailable due to their international commitments, Hampshire are believed to have turned to Rahane. A report in Sportstar said a final decision was awaited from the BCCI’s Committee of Administrators.

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India’s Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, who has a three-year contract with Yorkshire, is also set to spend some time playing county cricket.

As per reports, alongside Rahane and Pujara, Prithvi Shaw, Hanuma Vihari, Mayank Agarwal, Ravichandran Ashwi and Ishant Sharma might also play county cricket this English summer.