Ajinkya Rahane's crazy redemption shows just how quickly cricket changes

It's Day 2 of the World Test Championship at The Oval. Ajinkya Rahane and Ravindra Jadeja find themselves in the middle, hoping to prevent yet another top-order mini-collapse from morphing into a complete capitulation.

This pair, just a week or so ago, were celebrating in the largest cricket stadium in the world, having powered the Chennai Super Kings to their fifth IPL title. All that does not matter now, though. They have four Aussie quicks charging in at them, and on a track that is jagging around, they need to come up with a riposte and soon.

They eventually stitch together a 71-run partnership. That is then bettered by Rahane and Shardul Thakur, who put on 109 runs together and ensure that India have something to play with. In fact, because of the extra runs they score in the first innings, India seem to have a shot at victory at the start of the final day.

Things, though, could have been very different. In the 22nd over, with India’s score still under 100, Rahane was trapped lbw by Pat Cummins. Replays confirmed that the ball would have crashed into the stumps and that the middle-order batter would have been on his way, even after DRS intervention.

Cummins, though, had overstepped, and that accorded the Indian batter a life. He capitalized on it and ultimately mustered 89. Rahane was helped along the way via a couple of other dropped chances but there was no denying he had shown character, courage, and determination on a pitch where some more illustrious names had failed to do so.

Of course, it did not lead to a win but Indian fans began wondering if this particular version of Rahane was the closest to his earlier avatar – one where he would regularly stand up in adversity and dig his team out of trouble.

While there may or may not have been skepticism among the fans, the moment India announced their squad for the Test series against the West Indies, it became amply clear what the team management thought about the middle-order batter.

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Ajinkya Rahane has been appointed as India's Test vice-captain, again

India, it must be remembered, did make a couple of high-profile changes. Cheteshwar Pujara, long considered their batting rock at No. 3, was omitted, with Umesh Yadav also excluded. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal, neither of whom has played Test cricket previously, were brought in.

The transition that many had been calling for, did happen, even if not at the scale people thought it would. In this transitory phase, though, Rahane retained his place, even as Pujara lost his. And that is enough to highlight that India believe the right-handed middle-order batter can serve them longer-term as well.

This is precisely what makes this entire sequence amazing.

Cast your mind back to March 2023. Rahane last played a Test for India in January 2022. Despite several Indian players battling injuries and form, he was not considered for a recall during the home series against Australia. He had been picked up by CSK for IPL 2023 but it was unclear whether he would make CSK’s strongest eleven.

But then, something changed. And it changed to such an extent that Rahane, having played just one Test since coming back into the side, is now the Test vice-captain again, and someone India are relying on to hold their middle order together. All after he was written off mere months ago.

The ascension to becoming vice-captain is quite interesting, for it has come at a time when the pressure on Rohit Sharma is at its peak. There is no clarity on how long he will continue playing the format either.

Rishabh Pant is still recovering from a horrific car accident, with none of KL Rahul, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Shubman Gill guaranteed a spot across conditions. Even Jasprit Bumrah, who captained India against England at Edgbaston in July 2022, is highly injury-prone.

As ludicrous as it might sound, Rahane might even be in the reckoning to take over the Test reins, if he can keep churning out runs in the middle order and if no other captaincy option readily presents itself.

That, though, is a debate and discussion for another day. Right now, the fact that Rahane is back in the Indian side, perhaps with a longer-term plan (as a batter primarily) in mind than it supposedly was for the WTC final, highlights what turn his career has taken.

In fact, had Cummins managed to pull back his front foot by about an inch, Rahane might not have survived the WTC chopping and changing altogether. Another low first-innings score would have accrued to his tally, and the conversation might have been of how India went back to a player who had looked so miserably out of touch during his last international sojourn.

None of that anymore.

Rahane, of course, deserves the utmost credit for hanging in there and finding the requisite wind to inject into his sails, especially at a time in his career when it would have been easier to get marooned.

With top-level sportspeople, there is always a chance that they might fail. Even if that happens in the West Indies, this crazy Rahane redemption arc will not dwarf in significance, and will only keep on illustrating how fickle this sport is and how rapidly it can change.