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Ajinkya Rahane: Time to move on, but someone like him deserved better

National Herald | July 30, 2026 11:39 PM CST

There was hardly any surprise when Ajinkya Rahane’s retirement video popped up on social media on Thursday morning. If at all, there was a tinge of regret as one of India’s most selfless and understated performers called time on all forms of cricket after a 15-year career, that 'Jinx' perhaps deserved better.

‘’The reality of life is that everything has a beginning and everything has an end. When the time comes, we simply have to respect it and move forward,’’ the Mumbaikar set the tone in a video shot in the UK, where the former India captain is now doing a commentary stint in The Hundred. There are many who feel that the retirement could have come last year itself, as it has been more than three years since the 38-year-old last played for India, but it had to be his call at the end of the day.

Yes, he tried to keep the competitive juices flowing as captain of Kolkata Knight Riders for the past two IPL seasons, but Rahane must have got the drift that the IPL franchise is looking at a reboot after two back-to-back poor seasons and his time there was over. Interestingly, he had stepped down from the Mumbai captaincy midway through the 2025-26 season with an eye towards grooming a new captain, a step which indicated that he was mentally preparing for this hour.

An aggregate of 5,077 runs from 87 Tests at an average of 38.46, including 12 centuries, is impressive by any yardstick, but it would perhaps be straitjacketing things to measure his contribution by numbers alone. Despite his career coinciding with those of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara, Rahane rode on his compact technique and resilience to bring out his best in challenging overseas conditions — be it the 147 against Australia at MCG in 2014, 103 vs England at Lord’s (2014) or the counter-attacking 112 at MCG on the back of the nightmarish 36 all out in the previous Test at Adelaide in 2021.

The way he rallied a severely depleted squad — with Kohli unavailable due to the impending birth of his baby — to fashion a remarkable 2-1 win for back-to-back Border Gavaskar Trophy wins will certainly remain one of the high points of his career. There was a time after that tour which saw a debate as to whether the quiet yet hard-as-nails Rahane would be better suited as leader, but a slow dip in form did not help his case.

Ajinkya Rahane: The crisis man comes calling again

Just as when the Indian team management started looking beyond Pujara and Rahane, the two pillars in the Test middle order, the latter took a call-up by Chennai Super Kings as an opportunity to remodel his IPL game. This earned him a surprise call-up for the World Test Championship (WTC) final in 2023 against Australia at The Oval, where he scored a gritty 89 in a losing cause. The subsequent West Indies tour was the last one in which he was part of the national set-up, though one felt a senior cricketer like him ought to have been treated with a little more respect.

Did the perception of being a quintessential red-ball cricketer do him more harm than good in terms of his longevity in the international arena? It’s a label which he detested, often saying he was keen to play white-ball cricket, while no less than the great Sir Clive Lloyd once said Rahane could have filled in the much debated no. 4 batter’s spot during the 2019 World Cup in England.

Speaking to this writer for a Dubai-based publication, Lloyd had famously said: ‘’I think India should have had him (Rahane) in the middle order during the World Cup, but they were finding it difficult to decide on candidates for Tests and white ball cricket. In my opinion, you need a stayer like we had Larry Gomes during our time. You can’t hope the top guns to fire all the time and that’s where a player like him would have been in handy.’’

Yes, Ajinkya Rahane surely deserved better.