Why Ajinkya Rahane's selection for Test Championship final is no surprise?

Ajinkya Rahane (Source - Twitter)

On Tuesday, April 25, the Indian Cricket Board announced a 15-member squad for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia, and to everyone's surprise, the selectors included veteran batter, Ajinkya Rahane. While all the other names were predictable, the inclusion of Rahane was not digested by some fans as the right-handed batter had been out of international cricket for 15 months.

Many are still confused by Rahane's selection, and the move has been heavily criticised by many. The 34-year-old had a decent outing in the last Ranji Trophy and he is currently having a dream campaign with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). The Maharashtra -born player is striking close to 200 and has scored more than 200 runs in five outings this season.

Just two days after his blistering 29-ball 71* against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Eden Gardens, the governing body of Indian cricket announced the WTC final squad, prompting many to suspect his selection is based on the performance in IPL. However, Rahane's T20 strike rate and 11 sixes are not seen to be the true reason for his call back to the longer format.

Three reasons why Rahane's selection makes sense

The former Indian captain's experience, decent performance in the domestic circuit and injuries to key players are the top three reasons for his inclusion in the squad for the marquee event. Team India have a huge task to fill the void of Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah and Shreyas Iyer who are out due to injury. Without Shreyas and Pant, the Indian middle order looks weak and the selectors had to pick an experienced guy instead of experimenting with young players.

The chances of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel playing together at the Oval is slim, and without a proper middle-order unit, the selection committee's decision to bring back Rahane of 82 Tests makes sense. Rahane last played in the South Africa Test series in January 2022 and was dropped following poor form. But in the last Ranji Trophy, he proved to everyone that he has enough left in his tank as he scored 634 runs at an average of 57 from 7 matches.

India’s Test Squad for WTC Final

Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, KS Bharat (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat