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Cricket

'Pichli baar kya bola tha? Aukaat?' - Fans elated as Ajinkya Rahane named in India squad for Test Championship final

Ajinkya Rahane will make his test comeback in the Test Championship final. The veteran was named in the final squad. Here's more.

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Ajinkya Rahane, India

Ajinkya Rahane, India (Source: Twitter)

Ajinkya Rahane, a seasoned player, has helped Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 by consistently performing. Rahane hasn't played for the Indian national side in a while. Still, his IPL performance resulted enough to get him back into the team for the next Test Championship final against Australia. Rahane's comeback comes at a time when Shreyas Iyer is injured.

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Rahane last appeared for the Indian side in a Test match in January last year. At Newlands, he played against South Africa. Due to poor form since then, the seasoned batter has been sidelined. Despite the stark differences between T20 and Test cricket, Indian Cricket Board executives appear to have been impressed by Rahane's accomplishments for CSK and were considering bringing him back for the Test Championship final, as reported earlier.

'I just want to keep batting the same way' – Ajinkya Rahane

Rahane has scored 209 runs in the 16th IPL season at an average of 52.25 and a strike rate of 199.04. The right-handed batsman mentioned creating an impression during a recent press conference. Rahane stated that he isn't obsessing over things beyond his control and only wants to concentrate on doing well for Chennai when asked about a potential return to India.

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"I just want to keep batting the same way, keep contributing to the team, not thinking too much about myself, the results, and the outcome. If I do that, I will be really happy," he said. "Intent for me is all about doing well for the team, whether I'm playing for CSK or Indian team. Keep thinking about the team rather than thinking about yourself, your own result or the outcome. Intent is about how badly you want to do well for your team and how badly you are thinking about your team. So that's my only thing," he concluded.

Here's the full India squad for the Test Championship finals:

Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, K L Rahul, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.

Here's how fans reacted:

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