He batted like a subcontinent pro at the Chinnaswamy, putting himself firmly in the conversation around Test cricket’s future Fab Four
Deivarayan Muthu21-Oct-20241:39
Manjrekar: Very rarely did Rachin defend against the spinners
Until Sunday, the last time New Zealand beat India in a Test match in India was in 1988. Michael Bracewell’s uncle John played that game, and bagged a six-for in the fourth innings at the Wankhede Stadium. Michael wasn’t even born at the time. Neither was anyone else from New Zealand’s current Test squad other than Ajaz Patel, who was just over a month old at the time.Rachin Ravindra wouldn’t arrive in the world until 11 years later.Thirty-six years after Mumbai 1988, New Zealand finally won another Test match in India, and Ravindra was in the middle of it all, scoring a dazzling first-innings century and following up with a composed 39 off 46 balls amid the mounting tension of a small run chase. New Zealand and Ravindra had done the unthinkable at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.Around this time last year, Ravindra had announced his arrival in India, scoring 578 runs in ten matches, drawing level with Kane Williamson for the most runs by a New Zealander in a single edition of the men’s ODI World Cup. Now, Ravindra slotted into the absent Williamson’s role and lived up to his billing as New Zealand’s future batting leader.A year on from a breakout ODI World Cup, Rachin Ravindra has returned to India and shown he can be just as prolific in Test cricket•BCCIWhen India first met Ravindra in 2021, he was batting at No.6 in T20Is and even further down the order in Tests, with his utility as a left-arm spinner earning him a red-ball debut in Kanpur. There, batting at No.8 in the fourth innings on day five with No.11 Ajaz for company, he salvaged a draw against an attack that included R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel.It was the first glimpse of a special talent on the world stage. Ravindra has now harnessed that talent to move up to No.4 and become New Zealand’s premier all-format batter.Cricket is veering towards a new generation, with other young, supremely talented batters also emerging. Ben Stokes thinks Harry Brook can replicate Virat Kohli’s all-format success. Rohit Sharma reckons India have found a “great” player in Yashasvi Jaiswal. Just eight Tests old, Kamindu Mendis has been ripping up the record books for fun. Ravindra is now in the same conversation around cricket’s future Fab Four.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe most striking aspect of Ravindra’s batting in Bengaluru was the assurance he showed against India’s spinners. Most overseas batters are often stuck on the crease, reduced to picking spinners only off the pitch. But Ravindra is not most overseas batters. He batted like a subcontinent batter in the subcontinent. He was right forward or right back, opening up a number of scoring options for himself.”Rachin has made every post a winner in all the games he’s played,” New Zealand coach Gary Stead said. “He was certainly at his very best in this game and played beautifully in both innings and put us in a position that we could win.”Ravindra’s ability to pick length early also enables him to manoeurve the ball against the turn. When Jadeja erred marginally short in the 75th over of New Zealand’s first innings, Ravindra jumped onto the back foot so quickly that he could caress the ball between slip and deep third. Then, when Ashwin dragged an offbreak short and outside off, Ravindra used his rubber wrists and the depth of the crease to shovel it away against the turn.Ravindra has been a strong back-foot player right from his age-group days in Wellington. To improve his front-foot game before New Zealand’s six-Test subcontinent expedition, he went to great lengths. He arrived in India before the rest of New Zealand squad and had a four-day preparatory camp at the Super Kings Academy in Chennai in exaggerated conditions, which included batting against spin on used black- and red-soil pitches.Decisive footwork and strong wrists were a feature of Ravindra’s batting in Bengaluru•AFP/Getty ImagesThat preparation has clearly served him well. In Galle, Ravindra made a magnificent fourth-innings 92 as Sri Lanka’s spinners ran through the rest of New Zealand’s line-up. And he went even better in Bengaluru. According to ESPNcricinfo’s logs, he scored 112 of his 173 runs in Bengaluru off the front foot, and a further 22 while stepping out of the crease.”As long as I’m clear when I get out to bat and have a plan, that helps a lot,” Ravindra told the host broadcaster after winning the Player-of-the-Match award. “And also the choice – having the intent to move forward and back, not necessarily trying to attack the game but taking care of my position in this part of the world. But yeah, preparation helps. When you have six subcontinent Tests in a row, you’ve always gotta do a little bit extra whether it’s indoors at the nets or head out somewhere else and do some training.”Having conquered what is arguably the toughest challenge in Test cricket right now, scoring big runs while beating India in India, Ravindra is firmly on the path to greatness.
