Ajinkya Rahane

While he might not turn heads like many of his glitzier batting colleagues, Ajinkya Rahane has been a dependable middle-order batter for India, particularly overseas, and will always be remembered for leading the side to a spectacular Test series win in Australia in 2020-21.

A top-order batter for Mumbai, Rahane scored over 1000 runs in his second Ranji season, helping the side secure their 38th title win. He made his Test debut in 2013, after months of travelling with the squad, and then in his third match, he scored 51 not out and 96 in Durban. His first Test century followed soon, in a draw in Wellington in February 2014. Five months later, he was in the vanguard for India's first win at Lord's in nearly three decades, setting the game up with a solid 103 in the first innings. He followed it up with his maiden ODI century, at Edgbaston, as India wrapped up the ODI series 3-1.

Rahane's impressive form continued, with hundreds in Melbourne and Colombo, and then two against South Africa in the 2015-16 Delhi Test, in a series where no one else scored a century. His partnership with Cheteshwar Pujara against Australia in the 2017 Bengaluru Test helped India level the series, which they went on to win two Tests later under Rahane's captaincy.

Early in 2018, he produced a match-turning second-innings knock on a tough Johannesburg pitch, after having been dropped for the first two matches of the series, but he was no longer looking like the dominating Test batter he had previously been.

Even so, his most significant Test innings was yet to come. When India were bowled out for 36 in Adelaide in December 2020, he took charge of an under-pressure team for the rest of the series (regular captain Virat Kohli left the tour for the birth of his child). In the next Test, in Melbourne, Rahane produced a masterclass hundred that set the tone for India's hard-fought series win.

He was dropped again in 2022, but made a comeback in the 2023 World Test Championship final, where he top-scored for India, but they lost the title to Australia.

Although known for his orthodox batting, Rahane has had success as a T20 batter as well. He scored over 500 runs in two IPL seasons for Rajasthan Royals, has two hundreds in the tournament, led Mumbai to the Syed Mushtaq Ali title in 2022-23, and astonished everyone with a belligerent 61 off 27 balls for Chennai Super Kings against Mumbai Indians in the 2023 IPL.

- Ajinkya Rahane has been part of the IPL since the first season in 2008, although he did not get a game in 2010. He featured for Mumbai Indians in the first two seasons but earned limited opportunities.

- From 2011 to 2015, Rahane was with Rajasthan Royals, for whom he scored one century and 15 half-centuries in that period. His best seasons with the bat came with RR in 2012 and 2015, amassing 560 and 540 runs respectively.

- In 2016 and 2017, Rahane represented Rising Pune Supergiants while RR were banned. The 2016 season was his most consistent with six half-centuries in 14 games and he also captained once when Steven Smith was ill.

- Traded to Delhi Capitals ahead of IPL 2020, Rahane had a three-year lean streak with the bat. In his first stint with Kolkata Knight Riders in 2022, Rahane averaged only 19 in seven games. Across those three seasons, Rahane's strike-rate was 105.60, 100 and 103.90 respectively.

- Rahane got a boost to his IPL career in IPL 2023 when, for Chennai Super Kings (his sixth IPL franchise), he developed as a pinch-hitting enforcer as the team lifted the trophy. It was also Rahane's first IPL title. His strike-rate jumped to 172.48 that season, enjoying a consistent run in a playing XI for the first time since 2019. He could not repeat those highs in 2024, with his strike-rate dropping 123.46.

- Bought by KKR again for INR 1.5 crore for a second stint ahead of IPL 2025, Rahane was made the team's captain following the departure of Shreyas Iyer. He hit three fifties, averaged more than 35 and had a strike-rate of almost 148, but the team finished eighth. Rahane was retained as KKR captain for IPL 2026 too.