Ajinkya Rahane is an Indian cricketer known for his batting and the current vice captain of India in the test format. He is a right handed batsman and represents Mumbai in the domestic cricket. Ajinkya Rahane has played in the Indian Premiere League (IPL) for teams like Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals and represented Rising Pune Supergiants in the 2016 IPL. Rahane made his debut in International T- 20 Cricket in August 2011, One Day International (ODI) in September 2011 and Test Matches in March 2013.
Rahane was born to Madhukar Baburao Rahane and Sujata Rahane on 6th June 1988 in Ashwini village of Ahmednagar. He has a younger brother and sister - Shashank and Apurva. Rahane did his schooling from SV Joshi High School in Dombivali, on the outskirts of Mumbai. He had interest in cricket from a very young age and at the age of 7 he started coaching in Dombivali itself and started to train under former Indian batsman - Pravin Amre. He made his first class debut playing for Mumbai at the age of 19 and was selected for the Mohammad Nissar Trophy of September 2007 at Karachi. In his debut match against Karachi Urban, he scored a century and made 143 runs of 207 balls with an opening partnership of 247 with Kukreja. He was then picked for the Irani Trophy match against Rest of India. He was also a part of the India U-19 World Cup and played with cricketers like Ishant Sharma, Virat Kohli and his performance in the tournament received critical acclaim. Rahane was then selected for the Ranji Trophy in the Mumbai Team in the 2007 - 08 Season and was later included in the West Zone for the 2007- 08 Duleep Trophy. In this tournament he scored 172 against England Lions and created an impact. In his second season of Ranji Trophy, he scored 1089 runs in the tournament and his performance was one of the major reasons that helped Mumbai in winning its 38th title. The Mumbai Cricket Association was quiet impressed by his performance. He maintained his performance in the 2009 - 10 and 2010 - 11 Ranji Trophy Tournament and in the 2009 - 10 tournament, he scored an unbeaten 265 against Hyderabad and scored over 1000 runs thrice in five seasons. Apart from Domestic Test, he was also a brilliant player in One Day matches and he made his List A debut in March 2007 against Delhi in the Ranji One-Day trophy and scored 61 runs in his debut. In 2011, he scored two centuries in the Emerging Players Tournament in Australia.
In 2011, after his two centuries in One Day Matches, he was included in the Indian Team for the England Tour. In his debut match, Rahane scored 40 runs against England and then in the second match he scored 47 runs in 54 balls. However, he was not in a good form against teams like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, West Indies and England. He made his international Twenty20 debut against England in August 2011 and he scored a half century in his debut and was also included in the T20 World Cup and helped India to reach the finals. He was also made the captain of the T20 format for the Zimbabwe Tour. In his captaincy, the team won the first match but lost the second. Still struggling in the ODI, Rahane made a comeback in the 2013 - 14 Asia Cup and he scored a half century in one of the matches. Later in September 2014, he scored a century against England and in November 2014 scored another century against Sri Lanka. Rahane was selected for the Test Cricket team in 2011 itself but he was on the bench for more than 16 months and made his debut in test cricket on 22nd March 2013. His debut was not able to create any impact. He was later included in the South Africa Tour in which he scored 209 runs in the tournament that included his 96 runs of 157 balls against South Africa at Kingsmead, Durban. He was the third highest scorer in the series. His first test century was in February 2014 and his score of 118 helped India to recover from the setback. He was also included in the England Tour of 2014 (Investec Test Series) and he scored his second ton at Lords Stadium to become the fourth Indian to hit a century on the first match played at Lords. His next hundred in test was in the 3rd Test match of the 2014 - 15 Border-Gavaskar Trophy and in four tests he scored a total of 399 runs that included a century and three half-centuries. In the 2015 Tour of Sri Lanka, Rahane broke the record of most catches by taking eight catches in the match. Later in the Freedom Series of 2015, he scored centuries in both the innings of the match and became the fifth Indian to do so. In August 2016, he reached his career best ranking of 8. He was included in the September 2016 series against New Zealand and playing in the 500th Indian test match; Rahane scored 40 in the second innings and helped India in winning the match.
Rahane got married to Radhika Dhopavkar on 26th September 2014 in Mumbai. He has been a consistent player in IPL and has played for teams like Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals and currently he represents Rising Pune Supergiants. He holds the record of being the first Indian to hit six fours in an over and also has hit a century in the format. Rahane is often compared to Rahul Dravid whom he considers as his mentor and has been quoted to have learnt from him while playing for Rajasthan Royals.
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