Rahane reacts on being used as a 12th man in the CT 2017

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Ajinkya Rahane is the Vice-captain of Indian cricket team. File pic

Internet Desk: Vice-captain of the Indian cricket team Ajinkya Rahane today said that he has no ego or insecurity as after captaining the team against Australia in the final Test match at Dharamsala couple of months back, he had to perform the duties of a 12th man in the recently concluded ICC Champions Trophy. Rahane didn’t play a single match single match in the CT 2017 where India lost the final against the arch rivals Pakistan.

But after getting a chance in the playing XI during the Windies tour he showed his true class as a batsman and became the top run getter in the tournament to bag the Man of the Series award.

“If I am the vice-captain of the Test team, it does not mean that I will not be performing my duties as a 12th man in ODIs. The moment you are representing your country, you are suppose to do whatever you are assigned. When I was carrying drinks during the Champions Trophy, I had no ego issues.

That’s how I am as a person,” Rahane told PTI during an interview.

The elegant right-hander made a successful comeback into the ODI playing XI with 336 runs from five ODIs at an average of 67.20 including a hundred and three half-centuries.

“West Indies was a special series for me simply for the consistency that I was able to show. This series is an important one for my ODI career and getting runs in almost all the matches was a really satisfying feeling. I got opportunity to show a different side to my batting and express myself differently,” said Rahane.

For Rahane, more than technical, there were mental adjustments that were really very necessary.

Asked to elaborate, Rahane said: “By instinct, I am an attacking batsman but the pitches in the West Indies required a different mindset. It required patience and at times not get enticed to go for the big ones. Discretion was necessary in shot selection.

“And when we talk about discretion, that’s where the mind comes into play — to be able to think clearly what are the shots that I am going to play in a particular situation, on a particular kind of pitch,” he said.

For him, what made the knocks special was the pitches in the West Indies which weren’t exactly batting friendly with the ones in Port of Spain and Antigua creating difficulties.

“Actually the 62 that I got in the first ODI (abandoned due to rain), gave me a lot of confidence. It was my comeback match. I wanted to have a good knock under my belt. Once I got those runs, the second match was even better when I scored that century. The pitches were sluggish in nature and each pitch was so different from one another,” he stated.