{"id":30927,"date":"2025-02-17T12:18:03","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T06:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uccricket.live\/?p=30927"},"modified":"2025-02-17T12:18:05","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T06:48:05","slug":"ajinkya-rahane-hopeful-of-making-another-comeback-in-international-cricket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uccricket.live\/news\/ajinkya-rahane-hopeful-of-making-another-comeback-in-international-cricket-30927\/","title":{"rendered":"Ajinkya Rahane Hopeful of Another Comeback in International Cricket"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ajinkya Rahane, who last played for India in a two-match Test series against West Indies in July 2023, nevertheless stayed hopeful for a return to Team India. The 36-year-old current Mumbai Ranji Team captain has already made 437 runs in eight matches of the Ranji Trophy 2024-25<\/a> season. Rahane scored 31 and 108 against Haryana in the quarterfinal of the previous week to help the defending champions stamp their place into the semifinal with a huge 152-run victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While speaking to the Indian Express just ahead of Mumbai’s semi-final encounter against Vidarbha at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur, Rahane said it again; the flame is still alive in him to play for India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“I’m more seasoned now but still feel fresh. I’m fit enough to compete at the highest level. I’m passionate and love this game. There is hunger to do well. I never get satisfied with my game and don’t take things for granted. The fire still burns within me to play for the highest standards. I feel there’s still some cricket left within me,” Rahane said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Unlike Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Cheteshwar Pujara, there isn’t much fanfare built around Ajinkya Rahane despite several match-winning knocks for India in all three formats of the game since his debut against England in 2011. As captains of a side that defeated Australia 2-1 in a four-match Test series Down Under in 2020 and 2021, Rahane would focus on cricket. Now, he believes staying in the spotlight is equally important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

He mentioned, “After being the shy youth back then, I have opened up now. My focus was on playing cricket and going home. Nobody told me that during the course certain things would be important. Even today sometimes, I feel ki bus cricket karo, ghar jao. Now I’m told I need to speak up and proclaim my efforts. People say you need to be in the news; there’s no PR agency for me\u2014my only PR is my cricket. Now I’ve learned that being in the news matters; otherwise, people think I’m out of the circle.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Although he has now been out of Team India for nearly two years, Rahane indicated that he did wish to make another Indian comeback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“There still is that fire and passion inside me. Currently, I am playing the Ranji Trophy, trying my best for the Mumbai team. The aim is clear: to make another comeback. When I was dropped a few years back, I scored runs, made it to the World Test Championship final <\/a>and was dropped again. But what is in my control? Play.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

“I still believe somewhere that I can serve the Indian team. There is still time left for cricket in me,” he added.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ajinkya Rahane, who last played for India in a two-match Test series against West Indies in July 2023, nevertheless stayed hopeful for a return to Team India. The 36-year-old current Mumbai Ranji Team captain has already made 437 runs in eight matches of the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 season. Rahane scored 31 and 108 against Haryana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":30935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-30927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Ajinkya-Rahane.webp",1024,490,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Ajinkya-Rahane-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Ajinkya-Rahane-300x144.webp",300,144,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Ajinkya-Rahane-768x368.webp",768,368,true],"large":["https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Ajinkya-Rahane.webp",788,377,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Ajinkya-Rahane.webp",1024,490,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Ajinkya-Rahane.webp",1024,490,false],"bunyad-small":["https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Ajinkya-Rahane-150x72.webp",150,72,true],"bunyad-medium":["https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Ajinkya-Rahane-450x215.webp",450,215,true],"bunyad-full":["https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Ajinkya-Rahane.webp",1024,490,false],"bunyad-viewport":["https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Ajinkya-Rahane.webp",1024,490,false],"bunyad-768":["https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Ajinkya-Rahane-768x368.webp",768,368,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Ajinkya-Rahane-640x490.webp",640,490,true],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Ajinkya-Rahane-96x96.webp",96,96,true],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Ajinkya-Rahane-150x72.webp",150,72,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Divyansh Mishra","author_link":"https:\/\/uccricket.live\/author\/divyansh-mishra\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Ajinkya Rahane, who last played for India in a two-match Test series against West Indies in July 2023, nevertheless stayed hopeful for a return to Team India. The 36-year-old current Mumbai Ranji Team captain has already made 437 runs in eight matches of the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 season. Rahane scored 31 and 108 against Haryana","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uccricket.live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}