Ajinkya Rahane played a terrific hand of 89 in the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 Final against Australia at The Oval. He made his comeback successful and helped India avoid the follow-on after Australia piled up 469 runs in the first innings.
Rahane had been out of the team for over a year and was not the part of the important Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2023 at home. After being dropped from the side, he went to domestic cricket and scored great runs in the Ranji Trophy 2023 season. Following that, he won IPL 2023 season with Chennai Super Kings (CSK). He showcased his aggressive side their and produced some scintillating knocks that paved his comeback to the side for the Ultimate Test.
Meanwhile, Australia head coach Justin Langer revealed that the legendary Steve Waugh had mentored Rahane ahead of the BGT in 2020-21 Downunder.
Langer, currently on commentary duties in the ongoing WTC final, said how Waugh called and informed him about counselling Rahane. Langer said it was ‘red flags’ for him to hear about Waugh mentoring Rahane.
“Before the series started Steve Waugh, my hero, he rang me and said I was going to be transparent. I wanna be honest I’m having some conversations with Rahane…doing a bit of mentoring him leading to that series,” Langer said on air on Day 3 of the WTC final.
“Not Steve Waugh, the iceman and we saw that calmness in Rahane, we saw the way he played in that series and when I knew he was talking to Steve, it was red flags for me,” Langer further added.
Earlier On Day 3, KS Bharat got out on the second bowl of the first seesion bowled by Scott Boland. After that, Rahane rescued India’s sinking ship in the WTC final at The Oval with a brilliant half-century in their first innings. He also completed 5,000 runs in Test cricket. Rahane and Shardul added 109 valuable runs for the seventh wicket after Australia reduced India to 152/6 at one stage. The partnership saved India from the follow-on and diminished the deficit margin to 173. India bowled out on 296 in their first innings .
In their second essay, Australia lost David Warner (1) and Usman Khawaja (13), early. Then Steve Smith, centurion from the first innings and his partner Marnus Labuschagne, who were in some touch, forged a 62-run stand for the third wicket.
Smith looked well set for a big knock but India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja had some other plans. First, he got rid of Smith, and then he dismissed the dangerous Travis Head. Australia finished the day on 123/4 with a lead of 296 in purse.
