Ajinkya Rahane
Ajinkya Rahane – Vice-captain Of The Indian National Team in Test cricket
Ajinkya Rahane is a well-known Indian cricketer and one of the most reliable and technically gifted batsmen in the Indian national team over the past decade. He has often stepped up as a kind of “crisis manager” – a player capable of steadying an innings and turning the tide of a contest. The clearest example came in the 2020/21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, when India pulled off a famous series win under his stand-in captaincy after a crushing defeat in the opening Test.
Ajinkya Rahane: Biography and Sporting Career
Ajinkya Rahane, whose full name is Ajinkya Madhukar Rahane, was born on June 6, 1988, in the small village of Ashwi Khurd in Maharashtra, India, into a modest Marathi Hindu family. Later, the family moved to Dombivli, a suburb of Mumbai, where he spent most of his childhood. The family did not have much money, but his parents, father Madhukar Baburao Rahane, a civil engineer, and mother Sujata Rahane, a homemaker, did everything they could for their children. Since the family could not afford expensive cricket academies, his father, seeing his son’s passion for cricket, took him to a small coaching camp in Dombivli when Ajinkya was seven years old.
“I used to come from Dombivali, the train journey was the most challenging for me and I used to travel alone from the age of 8 because my father had to go to office. […] I come from a lower-middle-class family. My mother used to babysit to earn extra money because my father’s salary wasn’t enough to make ends meet,” Rahane was quoted as saying by the respected Indian outlet The Indian Express.
Studying at SV Joshi High School while also playing cricket demanded huge effort from Rahane. He had to spend hours travelling by train from Dombivli to training sessions and matches in South Mumbai. At the age of 17, his persistence paid off when Pravin Amre, a former India cricketer and already a respected coach, spotted him at a local tournament. Amre took the youngster under his wing and became his mentor.
The results came quickly. In early 2007, during India U-19’s tour of New Zealand, Ajinkya Rahane showed his class by scoring two centuries over the course of the series. His performances in New Zealand helped him earn a call-up for the Mohammad Nissar Trophy, where in September 2007, already playing for Mumbai, he made an impressive first-class debut with a score of 143. The logical outcome of the 2006/07 season was Rahane receiving the M.A. Chidambaram Trophy as the best player in the under-19 category.
Over the following years, the young cricketer kept improving his numbers. In three of his first five seasons for Mumbai, he consistently crossed the mark of 1,000 runs in a season. In 2011, this earned him a long-awaited call-up to the senior national team – he made his T20I and ODI debuts against England. Two years later, in 2013, he made his Test debut against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Having become an integral part of the Indian team and a key player in various domestic and international leagues, Rahane built up an impressive collection of awards and set several landmark records:
- 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2024: multiple-time champion of India’s most prestigious domestic tournament, the Ranji Trophy, with Mumbai;
- 2011, 2014: two-time Champions League Twenty20 winner with Mumbai Indians;
- 2013: ICC Champions Trophy winner with the Indian national team;
- 2015: world record in Test cricket – the first fielder, excluding wicketkeepers, to take 8 catches in a single Test match;
- 2016: recipient of India’s prestigious national sports award, the Arjuna Award, for outstanding achievements in cricket;
- 2021: as stand-in captain, led India to a historic and sensational 2-1 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series victory on Australian soil;
- 2023: IPL winner with Chennai Super Kings – Rahane’s first IPL title, with an important contribution made in an aggressive style.
While many Indian batsmen have traditionally been strongest at home, Rahane produced some of his best cricket in the toughest away series in Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand. His 103 at Lord’s in 2014 alone was huge, as it helped break India’s 28-year curse at that “fortress of English cricket.” But Ajinkya’s real test of character came in Australia in the 2020/21 season. After the humiliating defeat in Adelaide, where India were bowled out for just 36, and after losing their captain, the legendary Virat Kohli, it was Rahane’s 112 in Melbourne that flipped the whole series on its head and led India to a historic 2-1 victory.
At the moment, Ajinkya Rahane continues to play at a high level at the age of 38, combining experience with strong leadership qualities. He is mainly focused on his club and domestic career, serving as captain of Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL. Alongside the IPL, he continues to play for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Ajinkya Rahane: Personal Life and Interesting Facts
As for his personal life, Ajinkya Rahane is married to Radhika Dhopavkar. They have known each other since their youth. According to some reports, the marriage was largely planned and arranged by their families, although the couple had known each other for many years. They have two children: a daughter, Aarya, born on October 4, 2019 and a son, Raghav, born on October 5, 2022.
To wrap things up, here is a short selection of facts about the cricketer, along with his playing statistics:
- Rare motor skills: Rahane bats and bowls right-handed but writes and eats with his left hand; this is one of the rarest such combinations among Indian cricketers;
- Karate background: as a child, alongside cricket, he also practiced karate and earned a black belt, first dan, at the age of 12;
- Reading on tour: he is known for taking books with him on tours and reading a lot between matches;
- Times of India ranking: the Times of India included him among the top 20 most desirable men in Maharashtra in 2018, placing him 6th;
- Investment in Chupps: he invested in Chupps, a Mumbai-based open-footwear brand, as part of his growing business portfolio;
- Playing nicknames: he has several nicknames: “Jinks” and “Ajju.”
Ajinkya Rahane’s social media accounts, Instagram: @ajinkyarahane, X/Twitter: @ajinkyarahane88, Facebook: Official Page, fully reflect his personality: calm, positive, professional content with no hype-chasing.
| Format | Matches | Runs | Bat Avg | Top Score | Balls bowled | Wickets | Bowl Avg | Best Bowl | Catches |
| Test | 85 | 5 077 | 38.46 | 188 | – | – | – | – | 102 |
| ODI | 90 | 2 962 | 35.26 | 111 | – | – | – | – | 48 |
| T20I | 20 | 375 | 20.83 | 61 | – | – | – | – | 16 |
| T20s | 308 | 7 968 | 30.29 | 105 | 6 | 1 | 5.00 | 1/5 | 134 |
| List A | 192 | 6 853 | 39.84 | 187 | 53 | 4 | 12.75 | 2/36 | 90 |
| FC | 205 | 14 209 | 44.96 | 265 | 108 | – | – | – | 228 |
