Someone else took credit for decisions in Australia, says Ajinkya Rahane
Ajinkya Rahane, India’s stand-in captain during the 2020-21 tour of Australia, took a cryptic dig about his team’s victory win Down Under and said that “someone else took the credit” for decisions he took to resurrect India after the nightmarish 36 all out in the Adelaide Test.
Rahane took over the reins in a tumultuous situation after regular captain Virat Kohli flew out of Australia after the humiliating loss in the opening game. But what followed was one of the most incredible turnarounds seen in Test history as India came back from behind to win the second match at the MCG, with Rahane leading from the front with a terrific hundred.
“I know what I’ve done there. I don’t need to tell anyone. That’s not my nature to go and take credit. Yes, there were some things that I took the decisions on the field or in the dressing room but someone else took the credit for it,” Rahane said in an episode of ‘Backstage With Boria’.
“(What was) important for me was that we won the series. That was a historical series and for me, that was really special.”
Without taking any names Rahane made a veiled attack on the then head coach Ravi Shastri, who was widely acclaimed for the team’s performance and dominated the media space for being the architect of the turnaround given that the dressing room resembled a hospital ward at one point.
“After that, the reactions from people or those who took credit or what was said on the media, ‘I did this’ or ‘This was my decision’, or ‘This was my call’, it was for them to talk about,” Rahane said.
“From my end, I knew what decisions I took on the field and what decisions I took on my instincts.
“Yes, we talked with the management too but I used to laugh about it, that is what I did on the field, I never talk much about myself or praise myself. But what I did there, I knew.”
However, since his match-winning 112, Rahane suffered a dip in form. Since the MCG Test, he played 13 Tests and scored 479 runs at an average of 20.82, which includes two fifties. In the recently concluded South Africa tour, he could score only 136 runs from six innings at an average of 22.67.
