Ajinkya Rahane has easily been the best batter in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2024-25. The former Mumbai captain has batted seven times in the tournament and hit five half-centuries. The latest of these came against Baroda in the 1st SMAT semifinal at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Ajinkya Rahane’s run spree in SMAT
After hitting the fifties against Maharashtra and Kerala, reports suggested that the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have virtually finalised the veteran batter as their captain for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season. Since these reports, Rahane has scored 299 runs in 4 innings. Yes, you read it right.
Rahane could have hit two centuries but got out in the nervous 90s twice. He missed a ton by just 5 runs against Andhra Pradesh, and now in the Baroda vs Mumbai semifinal, he fell short 2 runs shy of getting to his 3rd T20 hundred. This has seen Rahane become the highest-scorer of the SMAT 2024-25 season, and that too by quite some distance.
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Reinventing himself & KKR captaincy
After getting dropped from India’s Test side, Rahane reinvented himself. In the IPL 2023 season, the veteran batter scored 326 runs while striking at 172.48. Everyone thought it was an outlier, as the next season, Rahane averaged 20 and struck at under 125. But it seems like he did reinvent himself. So far in SMAT, he’s striking at nearly 170, all the while averaging 61.71.
KKR buying him for Rs 1.50 crore looks like a steal deal now, and given that apart from Venkatesh Iyer, there seems to be no captaincy candidate, Rahane could very well play as an opener and lead KKR in IPL 2025.
BRD vs MUM, 1st SF: Brief Scores
Baroda: 158/7 (Shivalik Sharma 36, Shashwat Rawat 33; Suryansh Shedge 11/2, Tanush Kotian 16/1)
Mumbai: 164/4 (Ajinkya Rahane 98, Shreyas Iyer 46; Shashwat Rawat 6/1, Abhimanyu Singh Rajput 10/1)
