Rachin Ravindra walked in to bat at No.4 for the first time in his ODI career during New Zealand’s run chase against Bangladesh in Champions Trophy 2025 today (February 24).
After bowling first, New Zealand restricted Bangladesh to 236-9, courtesy of Michael Bracewell, who joined an exclusive club with a miserly spell of 4-26.
Chasing the modest total, New Zealand were jolted early as opener Will Young, who scored a match-winning century against Pakistan departed in the first over from Taskin Ahmed without opening his account. Kane Williamson, coming at one down, got his second low score on the trot, getting caught behind by a Nahid Rana delivery in the fourth over.
At 15-2, entered Ravindra, who is playing his first match since the nasty head injury in the tri-series on February 8 in place of an unwell Daryl Mitchell.
This is the first time the southpaw came to bat at No.4 in his ODI career. Of all his 25 innings, the opening position, where Ravindra has batted 11 times, has been his most preferred one. However, the No.3 position is where he has found the most success, scoring 406 runs at an average of 81.20 and a strike-rate of 106.84, including two centuries and as many fifties. He has also batted six times at No.7 and twice at No.6.
It can be argued whether New Zealand could have sent Ravindra higher up the batting order. But Young scored 107 against Pakistan while opening the innings in the previous game which would have tilted the scales in his favour as far as opening is concerned. On the other hand, demoting Kane Williamson lower than his regular No.3 spot would have been too low for him - the last time he batted at any position other than No.3 in ODIs was 12 years back in 2013.
Hence, New Zealand’s best bet to slot Ravindra without disturbing the winning composition from the previous game was to send him at No.4, left vacant by Mitchell’s absence.
At the time of writing, New Zealand are 71-2 from 15.1 overs.
Rachin Ravindra ODI career across batting positions (before today):
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