While his career average dipped from 46.11 to 45.40 after his Sunday's score of 2, his Test average is far superior overseas than at home – 53.44 as against 35.64
It was only for the third time in India's Test history that four batsmen have crossed scored centuries. So much so that out of their 610/6 declared, 96.06 per cent of the team score have come from the blades of opener Murali Vijay (128), Cheteshwar Pujara (143), Virat Kohli (213) and Rohit Sharma (102*).
One batsman who must have felt miserable in not making an impression is India's vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, who fell for 2 after facing 15 deliveries on either side of lunch. He failed to ground his square cut against off-spinner Dilruwan Perera that he gave point fielder Dimuth Karunaratne a simple catch.
The batsman following him, at No. 6, Rohit, made the most of the opportunity to score a century and silence critics.
As Rohit made the most of the opportunity, Rahane has been getting out to spinners more often in Tests. Going by statistics, he is comfortable playing in conditions outside the sub-continent where the ball comes on to the bat. Six of his nine centuries have come outside India.
While his career average dipped from 46.11 to 45.40 after his Sunday's score of 2, his Test average is far superior overseas than at home – 53.44 as against 35.64.
Considered to be a good player of spin, Rahane has strangely fallen to spinners 33 times in Tests and to pacers on 29 occasions. That he has struggled against the slow bowlers in India is evident from the fact that out of the 28 innings he has been dismissed in, 19 of them have been to the tweakers. Even in his last Ranji Trophy innings for Mumbai against Baroda before the Test series, he was done in by left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh while playing off the back foot and was bowled off his back pad.
The Indian think-tank sees nothing major in his struggle against spin, especially at home. Teammate Cheteshwar Pujara said on Sunday evening: "Rahane is a class player. Obviously, this is the time when he is not scoring some runs but he is someone who will be back in form soon. His work ethics are remarkable. I am very sure that going forward, he is one innings away where the moment he gets a big score, he will back in form and be quite a useful player for Indian team."
Obviously, the opposition, Sri Lanka in this case, have worked out Rahane's weakness. Lanka's fast bowling coach Rumesh Ratnayake said at the end of the third day's play: "We have watched with the software we have. We have discussed and have executed ways to remove batsmen. We not necessarily look at the opposition strengths but also their weaknesses."
Being the accomplished batsman that Rahane is, and the team's vice-captain, he has the support of the team captain and the management. The thought of going to South Africa shortly should boost his confidence as he averages nearly 70 there (his average in New Zealand and Australia are equally impressive at 54.00 and 57.00, respectively).
But, with the horses for courses policy that Virat Kohli follows with his bowlers, is there a case for the same applying for batsmen? Rohit, with his sparkling century on Sunday, may have kept the team management thinking, especially when they sit to pick the 11 for the third Test in New Delhi.
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 "Ajinkya Rahane")
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