Ajinkya Rahane might have faltered in the first innings of the second Test at P Sara Oval in Colombo when asked to bat at a pivotal role of number three in the Test side, but the right-hander put up an emphatic performance during the second innings, where he came up with a well crafted century.
Rahane's calm and composed innings of 126 runs has given India a great chance to draw level and take the series to a decider. It was not an innings, which had a flurry of boundaries, but a gritty one with only 10 hits to the fence.
It was a huge challenge for Rahane with the scorching heat during the day time, but the elegant batsman was not perturbed, as he began to find gaps with ease and took singles after singles every over.
Rahane was pleased with the outcome and feels that this innings will give him huge confidence.
"This hundred will give me great confidence because conditions were pretty challenging. It was hot out there and it was very challenging to focus at the moment. I was batting on 82 at lunch time and after the break my plan was to just take singles and go to other end. It was hot out there and I wanted to play a long innings because in cricket one wicket and anything can happen," The Times of India quoted Rahane as saying.
Rahane might not have a permanent batting position in the team as the batsman has batted in other positions too. But with such performance, Rahane will put forward a claim for a permanent slot at number three.
Rohit Sharma, who was originally given the role to bat at number three, failed in the first Test and Rahane was surprisingly given a chance in the second Test at one down.
Rahane was disappointed with his performance in the first innings as he only scored four runs after which he talked about it to the coaching staff members such as Ravi Shastri and Sanjay Bangar, as the duo gave him some crucial inputs.
"When I got out in the first innings I was very hurt. I worked with batting coach Sanjay Bangar, doing some throw downs. So the coach's hard work and Ravi (Shastri) bhai's inputs really helped me in the second innings. My aim was to play as close to my body as possible and just build my innings," said Rahane.
