India star Ajinkya Rahane returned to cricket after almost four months for West Zone’s Duleep Trophy clash against North East on Friday.
The 34-year-old last played in IPL 2022 for KKR, where he was ruled out of the tournament after suffering a hamstring injury that sidelined him for eight weeks.
On his return, he led the West Zone by example and scored a beautiful double century. He amassed an unbeaten 207, laced with 18 fours and six sixes.
West Zone declared the inning on 590/2, which included a century from Prithvi Shaw and double hundreds from Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ajinkya Rahane.
Rahane, with his double hundred, would be hoping to shift selectors’ attention towards him to reconsider him for the Test side.
The 34-year-old was dropped from the Indian Test side for the Sri Lanka series in February after a prolonged dry spell with the bat.
Notably, Test stalwart Cheteshwar Pujara’s ouster from the team came around the same time as Rahane. But Pujara forced the selectors to reconsider him for the national side after an excellent county season. Thus, Rahane would be hoping for the same.
Rahane has featured in 82 Test matches and accumulated 4931 runs. He has scored 12 hundred and 25 fifty-plus scores.