Last November, as was blasting his way into the record books, he was greeted by chants of ‘Ra-chin, Raa-chin’ at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Rachin Ravindra, of Wellington but with roots in Bengaluru, from where his parents hail, was taking Pakistan apart in a World Cup game on his way to becoming the first New Zealander to score three centuries in a single edition of 50-over cricket’s showpiece event.
It’s a chant that until then had exclusively been reserved for one of the two all-time great Indian cricketers after whom he has been named. ‘Sa-chin, Saa-chin’ reverberated around stands across venues in India, and at many other parts of the world too, for nearly the quarter of a century that Sachin Tendulkar entertained and enthralled cricket fans. Ravindra must have been elated that it came at a ground where the other legend after whom he was named, Rahul Dravid, cut his teeth as a cricketer.
If the applause wasn’t as uninhibited at the Chinnaswamy on Friday when Ravindra scored his second Test century, it was only because India were at the receiving end of his lashing. But there was admiration, and not of the grudging type, from a large audience that soaked in his wondrous strokeplay against pace and spin alike.
His dad, Ravi Krishnamurthy, and his grandparents watched proudly as Ravindra sparkled and sizzled. By his own admission, while he is aware of and grateful for his Indian and Bengaluru connections, Ravindra is a proud Kiwi. But it must have been special for him to bring up a coveted milestone in a city from where his parents come, and which has embraced him as its own without reservations.
Five and a half years back, Ravindra sat a pub in MG Road, not far from the Chinnaswamy, forlorn as England lifted the 2019 World Cup title without besting New Zealand in the final at Lord’s. He would then have hardly imagined that he would create history in the next edition of the same competition, or that he would gradually move up the batting order from No. 7 to No. 4 and make himself a key component of the team when still only 24.
Ravindra’s first tryst with Test cricket in India came in November 2021 when he and Ajaz Patel thwarted India’s bid for victory in Kanpur by playing out nearly nine overs when they were the last pair at the crease. In the next Test in Mumbai, Ravindra took the catch that heralded the dismissal of Mohammed Siraj and made Patel only the third bowler in the history of the game to take all ten wickets in an innings. Given that sequence, it’s probably hardly surprising that on this tour, he has become the first Kiwi to three-figures, or that he fused the grit and spunk of a Kiwi with the oriental wristiness of the subcontinent to write a script most endearing.
The CSK hand in Rachin Ravindra’s success
Before this Test series, Ravindra spent time at the Chennai Super Kings Academy, working primarily on his game against spin. R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav were the biggest threats as far as New Zealand were concerned; Ravindra dismantled the trio systematically, using his feet brilliantly to dance down the track or going deep to play forcefully and confidently off the back foot.
Not many non-Asian teams are adept at coming down the track to counter India’s spinners. This New Zealand side is cut from a different cloth. Devon Conway and Daryl Mitchell both showed excellent footwork but it was Ravindra who took the cake. Using his height to great advantage, he put on a masterclass in the art of getting to the pitch of the ball and taking turn out of the equation. He was imperious against Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah too, taking the ball from the off-stump and whipping it through mid-wicket when it was pitched up, or going right back and punching wristily through the same area when it was of a shorter length.
He had a few close calls, but that’s perhaps no more than he deserved, given the free spirit he brought with him to the middle. Especially impressive was the rate at which he scored without making an obvious effort to force the pace. The boundaries came rapidly enough for him to make time spent in the middle count in the form of runs, and his ability to switch gears from the time Tim Southee walked in at No. 9 after a mini-collapse showcased a maturity well beyond his age and experience.
Ravindra couldn’t have hoped for a better start to the series. With Pune and Mumbai to come, he will believe the sky is the limit. Maybe at the Wankhede too, he will evoke chants of ‘Ra-chin, Raa-chin’ next month. Now, wouldn’t that be something?
