After more than three years away from the national squad, former India captain Ajinkya Rahane has announced his retirement from international cricket. His final outing for India was in July 2023, during the West Indies Test tour. This was the same series in which Yashasvi Jaiswal made his international debut.
Ajinkya said in a video on his official Instagram account that he is quitting from all formats of international cricket effective immediately. The right-handed hitter appeared in 85 Tests, 90 ODIs, and 20 T20Is for the Men in Blue.
He scored 5077, 2962, and 375 runs in the three forms, respectively. The 38-year-old scored 51 fifties and 15 centuries in international cricket.
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While Ajinkya best performances in international cricket came in the longer format, he was a member of India’s teams that competed in the T20 World Cup in 2014, the ODI World Cup in 2015, the T20 World Cup in 2016, and the Champions Trophy in 2017.
The Mumbai batter also appeared in the first two World Test Championship finals, in 2021 and 2023, respectively.
Ajinkya will be remembered for leading India to a successful Test series against Australia in the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. After India lost the first Test in Adelaide, where they were famously out for 36 runs in the second innings. Virat Kohli, the game’s regular captain, left home on paternity leave.
Ajinkya took on the challenge of leading a young Indian squad, scoring a match-winning century at Melbourne Cricket Ground in the second Test. He captained India six times in Test cricket. The Asian giants won four games and drew two.
Rahane is the current captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). He has captained the three-time champions during the last two IPL
seasons. However, speculations indicate that the Knights are interested in dealing for Hardik Pandya from the Mumbai Indians for the 2019 season. If the Baroda all-rounder joins KKR, he might replace Rahane as captain.
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