Mumbai comes first for Rahane

Like the rest of his teammates,Ajinkya Rahane,who incidentally missed a major part of Mumbais season,too is focussed on redeeming what has been a troubled period for his team with a strong showing in the upcoming one-dayers.

Like the rest of his teammates,Ajinkya Rahane,who incidentally missed a major part of Mumbais season,too is focussed on redeeming what has been a troubled period for his team with a strong showing in the upcoming one-dayers. But the 23-year-old top-order batsman has a lot more at stake than just his teams pride when Mumbai take on Baroda at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday. Rahane,who witnessed Indias Test debacle Down Under from the dressing-room,will be looking forward to putting up a good show in order to enhance his chances of a return to national duty come the Asia Cup.

The (West Zone) one-day tournament (commencing on February 22) is in my focus. I want to do well for my team and am not thinking about Asia Cup selection. If I do well and score lot of runs I would be automatically noticed,” said Rahane,who is the deputy to newly named Mumbai skipper Ajit Agarkar in the 50-over tournament.

The Asia Cup is to be held in Bangladesh next month featuring India,Pakistan,Sri Lanka and the hosts between March 11 and 22.

Rahane,who has not played any competitive games after returning home from Australia but has practised over the last 7-8 days,said his stint in Australia was very fruitful as he stayed with top senior players such as Sachin Tendulkar,Rahul Dravid and V V S Laxman and learned a lot from them.

It was a very good learning experience. All the senior players talked to me about the importance of adjusting to the different conditions there. They told me as an opener it was the key to playing long innings there, said Rahane,who has turned out in 11 ODIs since his debut in England last year.

And now being elevated to the vice-captaincy role,the opener said that he would learn things about leading a side by observing a senior teammate like Agarkar.

I would learn from Ajit and other players to read the game better in different situations, Rahane said after the team’s net session at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday.

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Mumbai comes first for Rahane

Like the rest of his teammates,Ajinkya Rahane,who incidentally missed a major part of Mumbais season,too is focussed on redeeming what has been a troubled period for his team with a strong showing in the upcoming one-dayers.

Like the rest of his teammates,Ajinkya Rahane,who incidentally missed a major part of Mumbais season,too is focussed on redeeming what has been a troubled period for his team with a strong showing in the upcoming one-dayers.