Nobody's jealous, Ajinkya Rahane but criticism is justified

There are hardly better sights than watching Ajinkya Rahane pierce a gap through the off-side with his upright bat swing and a high elbow alignment. Many exquisite batters play down the ground shots beautifully. You may like Virat Kohli’s punch or Rohit Sharma’s slash through the covers. But there’s something poetic when Rahane hits those perpendicular strokes that make you go, ‘Wow’.

But more often than not, batters with watertight technique and textbook-style batting have a challenging time dominating the T20 style. Similar was the case with Ajinkya Rahane, who struggled for more than 14 years in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He made runs. He threw in some match-winning knocks for the Rajasthan Royals (RR) as well but that oomph was missing. In fact, from 2008 to 2022, Rahane struck at just 120.7, a tally that interestingly went down in the powerplay, where he had an awful strike rate of 114.9.

Rahane found T20 rhythm but with a ‘catch’

But something switched in 2023. After the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bought him for a base price of INR 50 lac. Everyone felt that CSK bought him just for make up the numbers. Just to have another Indian batting option. But under MS Dhoni, Rahane had a ‘career rebirth’. He moved on from being a traditional anchor. It was something refreshing to see. While the Indian T20 style still didn’t adopt the ultra-aggressive approach that it has now, Rahane was one of those rare old sticks to have moved forward with the game.

He became a high-intent enforcer at CSK, batting at No. 3 more often than not. His strike rate that year was 172.48. Only Suryakumar Yadav had a better SR than Rahane in IPL 2023 among Indians with at least 300 runs. CSK won their fifth title and Rahane was one of those unsung heroes behind it. 208.3 was his strike rate in the powerplay overs that season. Rahane showed utter domination.

Ajinkya Rahane IPL strike rate

From 2008 to 2022: 120.7 (114.9 in powerplay overs)
From 2023 to 2026: 147.8 (167.8 in powerplay overs)

Everyone thought he had a new life. But there was a catch. Rahane did dominate the powerplay and still does so. However, post-powerplay overs, his game diminishes. He finds it really hard to hammer when the fielding restrictions are off. When spinners bowl stump-to-stump lines, he can’t go over the top easily.

One of the main reasons for that is the fact that there’s a huge contrast in Rahane playing pace and spin. Against pacers, Rahane has averaged 40 at a superb strike rate of 171 since IPL 2023. But against spinners, that drops down to an average of 20.3 and a mediocre strike rate of 119.9.

One would question why Rahane’s numbers in T20s against spinners are poor despite him being one of the pillars of the Indian Test team for multiple years. Well, there’s a difference between a great player of spin and a great hitter of spin. Rahane falls in the first category. But this is not amusing.

This is exactly what we have seen with another Indian legend in Virat Kohli. The greatest Indian IPL batter has operated at a strike rate of 125.0 against spin in the league. Even during his peak back-to-back seasons in 2015 and 2016, Kohli struck at 151.5 against the tweakers. The RCB maestro has now made an intentional effort to not let his game drop off against slower bowlers, having improved his strike rate against spinners from being 108 (from 2020 to 2023) to 133.5 since 2024.

Ajinkya Rahane vs spin in IPL

Year	Inn	Runs	Balls	Outs	Avg	SR	Dot %
2024	8	58	61	3	19.3	95.1	27.9
2025	10	137	122	8	17.1	112.3	32.8
2023	11	161	118	8	20.1	136.4	21.2
2026	2	29	20	0		145.0	20.0
Total	31	385	321	19	20.3	119.9	26.8

Since 2023

Why Rahane’s SR in IPL criticism is fair

Following KKR’s second straight loss in IPL 2026, Rahane attended the post-match press conference. He sounded livid. Of course, he would’ve been. After all, KKR once again leaked more than 220 runs. Against the Mumbai Indians (MI), they couldn’t defend, and now against SRH, the KKR bowlers lost the game inside the powerplay only.

However, when asked about his own batting, Rahane was furious. While his drop-off after the powerplay overs is a secret to none, the KKR captain was adamant about his own game as to how much he has improved post-2023. He didn’t pay heed to any of the criticism and used words like “jealousy” and “agenda”. While there’s no doubt that he has been a tormentor inside the powerplay overs and perhaps the best pace-hitter in the league, one should expect that a player of his experience would understand where the criticism is coming from.

“My strike rate… I have the best strike rate so far, from 2023. People who are talking are probably not watching the game or have a certain agenda against me. They don’t like me playing. They don’t like to watch me play. The amount of success I’ve got, I guess they’re jealous about that,” Rahane told the reporters after the match.

“People who are talking either don’t understand the game, or they want me to play a different kind of innings. They didn’t expect that Ajinkya Rahane would improve his game this much. I am happy they are talking about me, negative or positive. Let them talk.“

Certainly Rahane has improved but he needs to accept that his drop-off after the first six overs is alarming. Take account of his knock in KKR’s opening game against MI. Inside the powerplay, and against some great MI pacers, Rahane hammered his first 36 runs in 18 balls, striking at 200. But then, the veteran slowed down. He took 22 deliveries to score the next 31 runs, with his strike rate dropping to 140.9. That’s the difference in KKR ending up with 220 and not 240.

For a guy whose average drops from being 69 in the powerplay to just 17.8 after that period, he shouldn’t be this obdurate about his game. At 37, Rahane might not be best suited to change his game but he has already shown once how a change in approach can benefit a top-order batter.