I do visualization before the game: Ajinkya Rahane

The current tour of the West Indies has been one of redemption for Ajinkya Rahane. Having been frozen out for the most part of the World T20 until the semifinal, Rahane has come back a stronger batsman in the ongoing tour of the West Indies. The second Test saw Rahane complete an important century only for rain to make an intervention and churn out a face-saving draw for the West Indies at Kingston.

The third Test at St. Lucia however, produced a special performance from Ajinkya Rahane. Speaking about his preparation for the match, Rahane revealed that visualization was a big part of his game apart from keeping his cool and head while batting. “I do visualization before the game, a day before the game, and before that also, in the dressing room, before I go into bat. I always try and visualize myself in different situations. And actually, that is what helping me in the middle to bat at number five.

“It is important to assess the conditions once you go in and play according to that. It is not that, what you are thinking is going to happen in the field of play. But what you visualize most of the times, those things happen. But visualization helps a lot and most of the times I speak with our coaches, Sanjay Bangar and Anil Kumble. So, I think that communication and visualization are really helping me.”

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Speaking about the World Number one ranking, Rahane added that it was one of the major targets for the Indian cricket team. Rahane also added that the mood around the camp was fantastic at the moment. “Mood has been fantastic in the dressing room. Our goal is to play attacking cricket and dominate West Indies here because we have been playing good cricket and it is important to finish well on this tour. 3-0 will be very good and yes our long-term goal is to be the number one team. Right now it is important to stay in the present moment.

“As Virat said, (we) play positive and want to express ourselves in the middle. That means we want to dominate here again like we did in the three Tests. It is important to be in that process regularly and think about achieving that no.1 as a team.”

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