Ajinkya Rahane’s Test legacy extends beyond his 38.46 average

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Ajinkya Rahane’s India Test career ended with 5,077 runs from 85 matches at an average of 38.46, including 12 centuries and 26 fifties. Those totals provide only part of the picture, with Rahane’s overseas record and decisive innings carrying much of the weight in a career assessment published by the Times of India.

Rahane produced eight of his 12 Test hundreds away from home and repeatedly contributed in difficult conditions. His overall average was pulled below 40 by a prolonged decline during the final phase of his Test career.

The career split that changed Rahane’s final average

Rahane averaged 51.37 after his first 29 Tests, 21 of which were played away from home, before his average fell by close to 13 runs per dismissal across his remaining 56 matches and settled at 38.46.

Career measure Rahane’s record
Tests 85
Runs 5,077
Batting average 38.46
Centuries 12
Fifties 26
Average after 29 Tests 51.37
Home appearances 32 Tests

Rahane had also spent 16 Tests waiting for his debut. Only 32 of his eventual 85 appearances came in India, leaving a large part of his record shaped by overseas conditions.

Rahane’s strongest full-series return came in Australia in 2014-15, when he scored 399 runs in four Tests at 57.00. He never passed 400 runs in a Test series, which separated his collection of major innings from the sustained series dominance associated with the leading Test batters.

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Overseas performances carried the greatest value

Rahane scored eight Test centuries outside India, with hundreds in Wellington, at Lord’s, in Melbourne, Colombo and Kingston among the innings that defined his strength away from home.

Rahane appeared in 20 overseas Test victories for India and scored 1,517 runs in those matches at 47.40, with five centuries and seven fifties. The record shows that Rahane’s strongest contributions frequently aligned with successful India results abroad.

Rahane made 15 international centuries across Tests and one-day internationals, and India did not lose any of those matches. Each hundred was recorded in either a win or a draw.

Lord’s and Melbourne provided defining innings

Rahane’s 103 at Lord’s in 2014 rescued India from 145 for seven on a green surface and helped create a total that the bowlers could defend. Ishant Sharma’s spell then completed India’s first Test victory at Lord’s in 28 years.

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Rahane followed that innings with 147 at Melbourne during the 2014-15 Australia series, handling a pace attack led by Mitchell Johnson. Six years later at the same venue, Rahane produced another major performance under very different circumstances.

India entered the 2020 Melbourne Test after being dismissed for 36 in Adelaide, while Virat Kohli had returned home. Rahane took over the captaincy and scored 112 as India levelled the series. India later completed the comeback by winning the deciding Test at the Gabba.

Rahane also contributed during difficult tours in 2018. Recalled for the Johannesburg Test against South Africa on a pitch later rated poor by the ICC, Rahane scored 48 and shared an important partnership with Bhuvneshwar Kumar as India secured their only victory of the series.

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Rahane’s 81 at Trent Bridge later in 2018 formed part of a 159-run partnership with Kohli and helped India record their only win of that England series. Rahane then made 70 in India’s Test victory at Adelaide.

A late decline reshaped the overall record

Rahane averaged 71.33 in Tests during 2019, but his returns fell sharply after that recovery. He averaged 38.85 across four Tests in 2020, 20.82 in 2021 and 17 across two Tests in 2022.

India’s senior middle order also struggled during the same period. Kohli averaged 19.33 in 2020, 28.21 in 2021 and 26.50 in 2022, while Cheteshwar Pujara averaged 20.37 in 2020 and 28.08 in 2021. Rahane’s decline led to his removal from the Test side, but the downturn was not isolated to one batter.

Rahane returned to domestic cricket and scored 634 runs at 57.64 in the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy. He then changed the tempo of his T20 batting for Chennai Super Kings, scoring 326 IPL runs at a strike rate of 172.48 and adding 27 from 13 balls in the final as he secured his first IPL title.

The domestic and IPL form earned Rahane a recall for the World Test Championship final against Australia. Rahane top-scored for India in both innings with 89 and 46 before a quiet Test series in the West Indies brought his international red-ball return to an end.

Rahane’s impact was stronger than the headline total

Rahane’s 38.46 career average places him outside India’s group of Test batters who finished above 40, but his overseas hundreds and average of 47.40 in away victories provide essential context to the final number.

Rahane did not produce the career aggregates of India’s most prolific batters. His record instead rests on innings delivered during collapses, difficult overseas Tests and periods when India required a middle-order response. That match context remains central to how his Test career is judged.