Ajinkya Rahane

Ajinkya Rahane got married to Radhika Dhopavkar on September 26, 2014, followed by a reception at the MCA attended by his friends and colleagues from the cricket fraternity. While it was an arranged marriage, they knew each other from their teenage days.

Ajinkya Madhukar Rahane was born on June 6, 1988 in Ashwi KD, Ahmednagar district to Madhukar Baburao Rahane, a civil engineer who works at BEST, and Sujata Rahane. His family includes his younger brother Shashank and his younger sister Apurva.

When he was seven, his father had taken him to a cricket camp in Dombivli with a matting wicket, as they could not afford better. Unable to pay for auto ride every day, his mother used to take him there on foot while carrying his kit bag and his younger brother.

He got his Secondary School Certificate from SV Joshi High School in Dombivli. When he was called into the Indian Test team, he was in the third-year of his B.Com course.

Ajinkya Rahane, who began training under former India batsman Pravin Amre when he was 17, scored two centuries during India U-19’s tour of New Zealand in early 2007. This helped in his selection for the Mohammad Nissar Trophy in Pakistan where he scored 143 in his debut first class match against Karachi Urban in September 2007.

During the 2007-08 season, he scored 172 against England Lions and subsequently made his Ranji Trophy debut for Mumbai and helped the team win the title the following season with 1089 runs. He scored three centuries each for two consecutive seasons and surpassed 1000 runs during three seasons, with first-class top score of 265 not-out against Hyderabad in the 2009–10 season.

His 152 runs against Rajasthan in the 2011 Irani Trophy match contributed to his selection for India's Test squad. The same year, two centuries in the Emerging Players Tournament in Australia earned him a place in the Indian ODI team for the tour of England in 2011.

Ajinkya Rahane made his international debut for India with a half-century in a T20 against England on August 31, 2011, followed by his ODI debut on September 3, 2011, against England during the NatWest Series. However, despite a good start, he failed to impress in the latter ODI and T20 series against West Indies, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and England.

He was named in the Test squad against West Indies in November 2011, but due to poor performance in limited-over games, had to wait for 16 months before his debut. During this time, he watched seven of his teammates make their Test debut.

He finally got his Test cap against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on March 22, 2013, thanks to injured Shikhar Dhawan and sick Gautam Gambhir. Despite poor performance in that match, he was included in the team for India's tour of South Africa, which he finished as the third-highest run-getter for India, including a 96 off 157 balls.

On February 15, 2014, after India were down to 156-5 against New Zealand, Rahane took the team to a good score with his maiden test hundred, but Brendon McCullum's triple-century took the match away.

Rahane replaced Rohit Sharma in India’s tour of England in 2014, and again rescued his side from a 140-6 collapse with another century in the second Test match at Lord's Cricket Ground.