Under-pressure Indian batter Ajinkya Rahane has quelled some criticism of his poor form with the bat after he scored a century for Mumbai on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy 2022 match against Saurashtra.

Rahane lost his Test vice-captaincy after a prolonged period of failing to score big runs with his last Test ton coming in Melbourne and since then scoring just two half-centuries, one against England and another in South Africa.  

Despite being backed by the Indian team management and given a long rope, the calls for dropping Ajinkya Rahane gained traction.

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As per reports, the BCCI selectors had a talk with Rahane and told him that he needed to score runs by going back to domestic if he wanted to continue playing for India.

Therefore when he scored a century against Saurashtra at the Narendra Modi Stadium Ground 'A', Motera on February 17, it might have been a huge relief for the right-handed batter.

Mumbai captain Prithvi Shaw won the toss and chose to bat first, but Saurashtra bowlers rattled their top order with Shaw falling for 1, Aakarshit Gomel getting out for 8, and Sachin Yadav making only 19.

Rahane finally found an ally in Sarfaraz Khan, who is also nearing his century. At the time of writing this piece, Rahane had made 101 runs in 215 balls with 14 fours and 2 sixes.