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Profile | Ajinkya who? | The Cricket Monthly | ESPN Cricinfo
ABHISHEK PUROHIT | JANUARY 2015
54
It was another of those countless cricket matches on the maidans of south Mumbai in the late 1990s. The opening bowler, nicknamed Anna, was a tall, athletic man, possibly in his mid-20s. In his day job, he was a waiter at a nearby Udipi eatery. But he had a thing for the new ball. Before his establishment opened for the day, he would charge in and bowl his heart out. If he felt he wasn't needed with the bat, he would leave to wait tables.
Facing him that morning was a tiny boy, not ten yet. His worn-out bat looked too big for his small hands; his helmet, clearly too large for his head, sat loosely on its perch.
The first delivery pitched, climbed and crashed into the helmet. The boy went down. His team-mates were shocked. They thought he had cracked his head open. Everyone rushed to the middle. The boy was wailing.
They made him drink some water, and told him to leave the field and return later, when the ball would be softer. Anna told the boy that he wouldn't be able to face him and it would be better if he left the field.
The boy didn't say a word. All he did was cry, for about 15 minutes, until the umpire sounded the ultimatum - either bat or leave. That's when the boy got up, washed his face, wiped it with his forearm, like kids do, and took fresh guard. Anna charged in again.
Four, four, four, four, four - a blaze of cover drives and flicks.
"It was paining. But from inside, I was feeling that I do not want to show that pain. I did not know much back then, but I just felt like taking my time. I told myself I will not go off. I did not want to show [the bowler] my back."
More than a decade and a half later, in Durban in 2013, the boy, now a man, attempted to duck another bouncer. This too crashed into his helmet. But he wasn't crying this time. And there was no one offering water. Four deliveries later, another short ball arrived. And Ajinkya Rahane, batting on 5 in the first innings of his third Test, pulled Dale Steyn for four.
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he was not getting enough chances at Mumbai Indians either. Rahane wanted to play regularly in the IPL, but there were few takers. Amre remembers the time he mentioned Rahane's name to one franchise. "They bluntly told me, 'He is not a T20 player.'"
In September 2010, Rahane played for the Board President's XI against the Australians in Chandigarh. Shane Watson caught him for a second-ball duck in the first innings, and then watched him make an unbeaten 113 off 111 in the second innings against an attack that included Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus. Watson was so impressed he called his IPL franchise, Rajasthan Royals, to recommend Rahane.
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wow thanks to watto
