India's senior batter Ajinkya Rahane has seen a downfall in his career after failing to score runs consistently over the years. He is among the first-preferred players in the Test side.

However, Rahane hasn't played white-ball cricket for India after featuring on the South Africa tour in 2018. His last T20I match was in 2016 against West Indies and he got to play the shortest format in the Indian Premier League only.

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The 33-year-old believes that a lack of regular playing time has affected his form. “Sometimes, the reality is, when you play only one format and especially in the last 2-3 years where there is no Ranji cricket and no other domestic games, I think that needs to be taken into account because you can't score runs sitting at home,” Rahane said on Backstage with Boria. 

Ranji Trophy 2020-21 was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but this year BCCI confirmed the tournament will begin on February 17. Rahane has also been named in the Mumbai side, which will be led by Prithvi Shaw.

"No matter how much you practice or have net sessions, the confidence will not be gained with that. Confidence comes with game time and scoring runs in matches," he added.

Rahane feels that his performance was good when he played ODIs and Tests both. But after being removed from the ODI squad, he hardly got the game time. 

"Before that, I was playing ODI cricket continuously for Team India and I was doing really well. Suddenly, I got dropped, I don't want to go into that, I don't want to go into my past but the reality is I was playing well in 2014, 15, 16, and 17. ODI and Test cricket both were going really well. After that I hardly got game time, there was a huge gap between Test matches," he said.

Rahane, on the South Africa tour in 2018, scored 140 runs in 5 innings with one half-century. He never played for India again in ODIs after that. 

(With 'Backstage with Boria' Inputs)