Rachin gears up for subcontinental challenge in red-ball format

CHENNAI: From helping New Zealand salvage a draw against India scoring an unbeaten 18 off 91 balls on his Test debut back in 2021 at Kanpur to smashing his maiden Test ton (240) against South Africa earlier this year, Rachin Ravindra has taken giant strides in morphing into a promising middle-order batter in the game’s toughest format.

With the 24-year-old preparing to face the subcontinent spin challenge for the next couple of months starting this Monday when New Zealand takes on Afghanistan in a one-off Test at the Greater Noida Complex Ground, in Uttar Pradesh, he will be entrusted with playing a crucial role for the Black Caps who are in search of vital points for the World Test Championship final.

Rachin visited Chennai alongside his teammate Ben Sears for a short camp leading up to the series before they joined the team for the first Test.

“As a group we’ve had some good camps together, two camps in the Mount (Maunganui), Tauranga and we’ve had a camp in Christchurch and Lincoln. We’ve been able to get around to each other after being away, especially the Test team being away as a group for a little while,” said Rachin, speaking on the sidelines of his training at the Chennai Super Kings Academy.

“It’s been a great few days here in Chennai, being able to acclimatise ourselves in terms of the red and black soil pitches that we might face,” added the southpaw who played for CSK in the IPL this year.

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After the Afghanistan match, the Kiwis will go to Sri Lanka for a two-Test series and then return to India to play three more Tests around mid October.

Rachin has had success playing in India across formats. He was the breakout star in 2023 ODI World Cup where he scored 578 runs and also won the ICC Emerging Player of the Year award. And most recently, he also had a good run in the maiden IPL stint for CSK replacing the injured Devon Conway. He would look to take these experiences and challenge the home team in the upcoming series.

“Whenever you play India in a three-match Test series it’s always going to be difficult. It shows how good they are as a team around the world, especially at home and in red-ball format. It’s obviously going to be tough and the things we learnt from the last series, we’ll look to take it here,” he added.