Ajinkya Rahane
Cricket, Leadership, Resilience
A dressing room full of tattooed arms, gelled hair, peroxide highlights and dabbing twenty-somethings defines the post-Tendulkar era of Indian cricket. Amidst all the glitter and spunk of the youthful Indian dressing room, a quiet young man of short stature was the unlikely outcast. His name - Ajinkya 'Jinks' Rahane.
While he might not turn heads like many of his glitzier batting colleagues, Ajinkya Rahane has been a very dependable middle-order batter for India, particularly overseas. He is a resilient and versatile cricketer who has overcome setbacks through hard work, and excelled in various formats and adapted to different roles within a team.
But what he will always be remembered for is leading a young, inexperienced Indian side to a spectacular Test series win in Australia in 2020-21, perhaps pne of the greatest series victories of all time. 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 and with mindful aggression, led the team to triumph in Australia, turning challenges into memorable victories!
In his sessions Rahane unpacks his leadership philosophy and strategies and explains how he makes decisions under dire situations.