Ajinkya Rahane IPL 2020 team: Why Ajinkya Rahane is not playing in IPL matches?

Ajinkya Rahane IPL 2020: The vice-captain of India’s Test team hasn’t played a match in Indian Premier League 2020 so far.

India Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane might not have played a match in the ongoing 13th season of the Indian Premier League but has a decorated career in the biggest T20 league.

Having scored 3,820 runs in 140 IPL matches at an average of 32.93 and a strike rate of 121.92 including two centuries and 27 half-centuries, Rahane is the eighth-highest run-scorer among Indian batsmen in the IPL.

As far as playing white-ball cricket at the highest level is concerned, Rahane’s last ODI and T20I had come during the tour of South Africa and West Indies in 2018 and 2016 respectively.

Ajinkya Rahane IPL 2020 team

Rahane, who turned 32 earlier this year, was reported to be in talks with respect to playing IPL 2020 for Delhi Capitals. Having represented Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals (twice) and Rising Pune Supergiant in the cash-rich league, Rahane was eventually traded to Delhi by Rajasthan.

To address all the doubts across social media platforms regarding Rahane not playing IPL 2020, it is worth mentioning that Rahane is currently part of the Shreyas Iyer-led Delhi Capitals.

Why Ajinkya Rahane is not playing in IPL matches?

There is no hiding to the fact that Capitals have a solid Indian batting quartet comprising of Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant.

With them also acquiring the services of overseas white-ball specialists namely Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis and Alex Carey, Rahane was always bound to sit out at least in the initial few matches of a T20 tournament.

Despite the backing of the aforementioned numbers, Rahane being made to warm the bench might sound unfair to his fans especially after considering his skills at the top of the order.

That being said, the presence of Dhawan as an opening batsman almost makes it impossible for Rahane to find a spot in this Playing XI. Ideally, a T20 team prefers only one batsman who plays the anchor role. For DC, Dhawan has been successfully performing that role since last year.

In a tournament like the IPL, mostly overseas players of such quality are made to warm the bench due to four-player restriction rule. New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson sitting in the Sunrisers Hyderabad dugout is perhaps the biggest example in the recent years. However, all one can say in Rahane’s case is that such is the nature of the beast!

While Rahane had expressed availability for batting at any position in a bid to make an ODI comeback in the past, the fact that he has only batted thrice below No. 4 in white-ball cricket at the highest level also works against his favour.