Ajinkya Rahane's Troubles Intensifies; Gets Out On A Golden Duck In Ranji Trophy

It's been a tough few months for Ajinkya Rahane and his international career. His inconsistent run led to him being axed from the test side, where he was the vice-captain till the last part of 2021. 

Finally, in 2022, all the things that were being delayed finally came into being and Rahane was dropped from the test side and asked to play Ranji Trophy to get some confidence back into his batting. 

The strong Indian bench strength - including the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Shubman Gill, and Hanuma Vihari - kept on knocking on the door to get into the playing XI, ultimately got an opening of two spots in the playing XI - number three & five. 

Today, on 4th March, India played their first test match without Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara in the squad after many years. Hanuma Vihari replaced Pujara at the number three spot while Shreyas Iyer came in place of Rahane. 

Interestingly, in the Ranji Trophy, Rahane also took the field for Mumbai against Odisha. 

As the two matches began simultaneously - Vihari scored a brilliant fifty, Rishabh Pant came out to bat at number five(Rahane's position) & scored 96 and Shreyas Iyer made 27. 

At Motera, Rahane came out to bat at number four in the 24th over and got out on a golden duck as Odisha's Rajesh Mohanty got him out caught. 

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While a new sun shined in Mohali for team India, there was a sunset in Motera for Ajinkya Rahane.