Rahane: The silent guardian of Indian cricket whose numbers undersold his legacy

Ajinkya Rahane's career will always leave Indian cricket wondering what might have been.On paper, his numbers are respectable rather than extraordinary: an average of 38.46 across 85 Tests, 5,077 runs, twelve hundreds, twenty-six fifties. For most cricketers that would count as an outstanding career. For Rahane it somehow feels short of the mark. The figures don't capture the quality of the batting, the weight the runs carried, or the moments they arrived in. They suggest a good Test cricketer. Anyone who actually watched him knows he was capable of far more. It's the strangest statistical injustice of his career that he finishes outside the small club of Indian batters averaging above 40.India has capped 319 Test cricketers. Only 36 have finished with an average north of 40. For nearly two-thirds of his career, Rahane sat comfortably in that group.