What is behind Ajinkya Rahane’s home struggles?

Three weeks ago, Ajinkya Rahane was the apple of many an Indian fan’s eye: with his calm, positive leadership, he had inspired a historic Test series win in Australia, scoring a career-defining hundred in the Boxing Day Test to boot. Now, after the loss against England in Chennai, many want him out of the team.

Their arguments are not totally baseless. Since that magnificent Melbourne win, Rahane has failed to cross the 40-run mark in any of his six innings, with scores of 1 and 0 in the loss at Chepauk marring what should have been a triumphant homecoming.

Such was the criticism against the 32-year-old, that Virat Kohli had to come to his defence after the game.

“Ajinkya Rahane is, I have said this many times in the past as well, along with Cheteshwar Pujara, our most important Test batsman and he is going to continue to be. We believe in his abilities, we have believed in his abilities for a long time now. He is an impact player,” the India captain said.

“In the first innings, he wanted to score a boundary. It was a brilliant catch by Joe Root that got rid of him. If that had gone for a boundary and he had scored runs, we are not having this conversation. There are absolutely no issues.”

Still, over the years, there have been frequent questions about Rahane’s ability to score heavily at home. Again, they’re warranted. The India vice-captain averages 37.35 at home as opposed to 44.44 away, when most batsmen cash in heavily on friendly, familiar tracks. He has just four hundreds in India since his Test debut in 2013.

What is the reason behind Rahane’s underwhelming run at home? Is it down to his technique or temperament? What can we learn from his career so far? Is it a matter of perception somwhere? Let’s take a look.

Difficultly to score on slow, low tracks against quality opposition

When asked about Rahane’s omission from the ODI XI during the 2015 series against Bangladesh, former India skipper MS Dhoni had said that the right-hander struggles to rotate the strike in the middle overs. The words stuck with fans and experts, while also reflecting in some of Rahane’s knocks.

“On a slow pitch, whenever he has batted at No. 4 or 5, he does have a problem in freely rotating the strike at the start of his innings. I think Ajinkya will have to wait,” Dhoni had said.

It’s no secret that Rahane likes the ball to come on to the bat. He finds it difficult to infuse power and pace into his shots and instead prefers to use the bowler’s speed in his strokeplay. On pitches like the one at Chepauk, he can struggle.

It would be unfair to say that Rahane cannot play on Indian pitches at all, though. He has over 4,000 first-class runs for Mumbai at an average above 62. He piled on 1,089 runs in just his second Ranji Trophy campaign, helping Mumbai win their 38th title.

Two factors play into his impressive domestic record: the quality of the opposition and his batting position. If we take a look at the bowlers who have dismissed Rahane the most in Test cricket, they’re all elite cricketers: Nathan Lyon, Stuart Broad, Moeen Ali, James Anderson and Josh Hazlewood.

In terms of his batting position, Rahane was more or less a top-order batsman throughout his Ranji career, barely playing below No.3, leading onto our next point…

Ajinkya Rahane plays lower down the order

One of the major reasons behind Rahane’s disappointing form in India is his batting position. The Mumbai batsman has batted at positions 4-7 in all of his appearances at home. On occasions where the top-order batsmen have done well, which has been common for India of late, Rahane has been expected to come out and score maintain a high strike-rate. One such occasions, a cheap dismissal or two can be excused.

The right-hander, however, likes to play himself in and take his time. Since his debut, only Murali Vijay (48.23) has a lower Test strike-rate than Rahane (49.09) at home (minimum 1,000 runs). Yes, even Cheteshwar Pujara scores at a higher pace. As he does in white-ball cricket, he tends to defend himself into a hole and then plays a rash shot to compensate for it.

However, perhaps we should cut Rahane some slack here. On occasions when the team has lost a string of wickets and he has to come in sooner, Rahane has a better record. His four centuries at home have all come with him walking in before the 40th over, and India would rather their No.5 were good at digging them out of a hole and bad at launching from a platform than vice versa.

Rare good performances overshadowed by teammates

If asked about Rahane’s best Test performances, one would rarely remember a home knock. Lord’s 2014, Melbourne 2014 and 2021, or even the 96 in Durban might spring to mind sooner. A part of it might be because whenever Rahane plays well at home, someone else plays better.

For instance, the 188 in Indore, his highest Test score, came alongside Kohli’s majestic 211 and R Ashwin’s 13-wicket haul. The 115 in Ranchi was overshadowed by Rohit Sharma’s 212, while the crucial 46 and 38* as a skipper in Dharamsala paled in comparison to Ravindra Jadeja’s all-round brilliance.

With those knocks being rare and under the shadows, fans have continued to take exception to Rahane’s home performances. However, his recent numbers do give a glimmer of hope: since Jan 2019, Rahane has scored 354 runs in India at an average over 50, with one century and three fifties in six innings.

An immediate cause of concern for the India vice-captain, though, is his poor record against England. He’s yet to score a fifty against them at home and averages 23.85 against them overall – his lowest tally against any opposition.

With Rahane’s personality bringing calm and positivity into the dressing room, the Indian team management will be keen to keep him around. However, the right-hander must produce significant performances in the rest of the England series to help them out. The puzzle of Rahane at home is one without a clear solution as yet.