Ajinkya Rahane's future as a Test cricketer will depend on how he goes about his business in the upcoming Ranji Trophy season. 

Rahane's position in the team has been under fire after the middle-order batter produced a string of low scores in the longest format of the game. 

Rahane was the chief architect of India's remarkable turnaround in Australia when India came back from behind to win the four-match Test series 2-1 after being outclassed in the first Test match. 

Rahane giving the Border Gavaskar Trophy to Natarajan, nice gesture from the captain. pic.twitter.com/mV9ynQ7Bf6

— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) January 19, 2021

Rahane is not someone you would expect to go out in public and give hard-hitting comments, but in a recent chat with sports journalist Boria Majumdar, the former India Test vice-captain opened up on the historic series win Down Under that came under his captaincy. 

Rahane was tasked to turn India's fortunes around after India were bundled out for 36 in the first Test of the Australia series. The visitors not only had to deal with the horrors of a poor batting display, but they also had to play the remainder of the series without their regular captain, Virat Kohli, who had to go back to India to be with his wife for the birth of their first child. 

Toast of the nation after leading India to one of our best series wins in Aus. Today people are calling for his head. How is @ajinkyarahane88 dealing with it? Does he believe he has cricket left in him? How imp is Ranji Trophy? #Promo #BackstageWithBoria Show 2pm @AgeasFederal pic.twitter.com/nbbdsFiLa8

— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) February 10, 2022

Rahane scored a match-winning hundred in the subsequent Test match in Melbourne and then handled his troops in a fine manner that saw India register a historic series win Down Under, despite most of their regular Test stars out due to injuries or other reasons. 

Rahane said whenever he hears his critics talk about his career being finished, he just smiles at his doubters. The batter recalled his contribution in Test cricket while speaking on an episode of Backstage with Boria. 

"I just smile when people say my career is finished, people who know the sport don't talk like that - everyone knows what happened in Australia/even before it, my contribution in red ball - people who love the sport will talk sensibly," said Rahane.

"I know what I've done in Australia series and that's not my nature to go out there and take credits. Yes, there were few decisions that I had taken, but someone else took the credit. Important was for me to win the series," he further said in the interview, explaining it's the team's win that matters to him and not 'individual credits' that are being given.

© Instagram Ajinkya Rahane

Rahane's remark, as expected, created a stir on social media and fans started to call out Ravi Shastri and co for stealing the credit.

" Simple , Genuine , Calm, Humble"
Rahane for you ! https://t.co/k5JbQWmEuR

— Ravinder (@maza_aa_rha_hai) February 10, 2022

Shots fired on ravi Shastri ig https://t.co/3bdsW2IM6Z pic.twitter.com/7UwX0qc9rb

— A. (@Justkohli) February 10, 2022

Rahane fires cryptic shot about India's Test win in Australia ': Shameful @imVkohli @RaviShastriOfc https://t.co/QfadMnfnQh

— | Mohit | (@Ruthless_Mohit) February 10, 2022

Nothing wrong in Rahane's statements! He's definitely not credited enough for BGT achievements and Shastri's usage of words in PC(with Rahane sitting beside) might have also hurt him. He himself never boasted about those wins .. https://t.co/NzzE8w3YvR

— Fanatic (@TheSandeepTweet) February 10, 2022

He's referring to two things shastri mentioned
It's Kohli team
Pant and Gill were the first ones decided to go for the win. https://t.co/KxapSMqbkC

— Sagar (@Sagarc29) February 10, 2022

Apart from his individual form, the other thing that might have forced Rahane to say what he said was the fact that after the series win in Australia, all the credit was given to Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill. 

The former head coach Ravi Shastri too had said it was Kohli's team that won and did not applaud Rahane enough for what he did for the team in the absence of Kohli.

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