CHENNAI: Rachin Ravindra — who has not been at his best in the recent games — was happy to get his rhythm back as his unbeaten 59 came in handy for New Zealand to beat Canada and march to the Super 8s in style.
After a rough start to the T20 World Cup in India & Sri Lanka — falling Ill in Mumbai to poor returns in matches — the southpaw has redeeemed himself with a composed knock. He values his partnership with Glenn Phillips which helped him play his natural game without any pressure.
"Yeah, it (the runs) obviously means a lot. You always want to score runs as a batsman in T20, but I also understand the game is quite fickle, and you go through little chops in places you're doing well, and I think it's important to knowing T20 is a game of freedom, and the more you try to search for runs, the worse it gets. So, always trying to put the team first, and it was nice to get the result out there on Tuesday," Rachin said after his team's win.
Rachin rose to fame after his performances in the 2023 ODI World Cup in India. However, he has not replicated the same performances which gained him the limelight in the shortest format of the game.
"I'm always learning. I'm still young in my career and played a handful of cricket, but still a lot to come, and I've been lucky enough to have a lot of franchise experience around the world, so I think I'm learning with each experience, and it's natural. It is what it is, and I think with T20, it's an evolving format, so some days are different," he added.
A few adjustments and trying not to think too much about the strike rate may have been key behind his creditable knock today.
"I've just potentially given myself a little bit more time and still backing myself and trusting my positions, and knowing that at the end of the day, my striker will take care of itself, because hopefully I'm a strike maker and look to take the game on, and it was also nice to have GP(Glenn Phillips) at the other end, and he took a lot of pressure off me and the partnership with him, and I was able to just bat, which was great," he said.
The 26-year-old said that he is trying to adapt to all three formats.
"I think it's just adapting to each format, obviously being lucky enough and very grateful to play all three formats, and that's the hardest sort of piece, and being able to go from a Test player to ODI to a T20 all in between, so that's probably what it is, and being able to come back to what's important and the basics of your game, which allows you to flow freely throughout formats, and I think that's always going to be a challenge, especially with how much cricket we play these days," he said.
The former CSK player is also getting opportunities to bowl a lot once in awhile and even at the death.
"Yeah, it's been great. The game dictates your plan usually most of the time, what end you're bowling from. I am trying to get them to hit to that bigger fence and being unpredictable, it's been fun. I've always loved to bowl because it gives me the opportunity to contribute to the team, and I think that's the biggest thing for us, and finding ways to do that. Hopefully, I have a role in Colombo with those turning wickets, but you never know if the match-up is right, and having a world-class left-arm spinner (Santner) in our camp is cool, and you get to talk a lot of cricket with him, so definitely learning from him," signed off Rachin.
