If you want to understand Ajinkya Rahane, the person, the player, the character, the leader and the team man, watch his century against Australia in the Boxing Day Test in 2020. That century by Ajju, as I call him, was a character-defining innings.
It was the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, after had India collapsed to 36 all out in Adelaide the previous week. Ajju was leading the side in Melbourne after Virat [Kohli] had to head back to India for the birth of his child.
There was pressure but Ajju didn't let it get to him while batting. He just kept playing his game. We were losing wickets but he stood his ground and eventually got his century. For me that was one of the best innings under pressure - leading as a captain and showing the team how to bat in those conditions. It was a match-winning effort and put India back in the series.
The challenging part after Adelaide was that we didn't have a full-strength team, with Virat away and Mohammed Shami injured. I remember some of us senior players - myself, Ajju, R Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah - chatting and saying that yes, we are missing some key players, but the inexperienced players have a lot of potential too. We said that if we, the older players, played our parts, then the others would definitely support us.
Ajju told us to feel free to communicate with the younger players in whatever way we wanted, to give them whatever inputs we had. What such a thing does is create an environment where everyone's voice is heard, and although you are not in a leadership role, you're still contributing. Although I was the vice-captain, I also felt like I was in a leadership role and that I needed to contribute in that aspect. The same applied to Ash or Bumrah: they needed to tell the players what was expected and what they needed to do to be successful in those conditions. In a team environment it's highly important for the leader to allow some of the senior players to chip in and not try to be the man who's deciding everything.
Ajju was the same even when he led Mumbai and other teams, including in the IPL. His strength as a captain was to keep things very simple. There was no ego about who was the best in the team. Everything was about ensuring you got the best out of all the players. Each player was important and he gave a lot of comfort to each of them. That didn't mean he would compromise on work ethic, which he was brilliant at.
He focused on leading by example, but at the same time, he allowed everyone to have a voice, to be in their comfort zone. And he did not try to tinker too much when things were going well. Because sometimes, the less you talk, the better for the team. Ajju knew really well when he had to step in and when he had to just let things happen. That did not mean he couldn't be firm. He had the self-confidence that he could achieve anything on the field, whether it was as a leader or as a player.
The person and player were always the same. When you meet him in person, he is a very soft-spoken, calm, down-to-earth sort of character, which also reflects in his game. On the field too, he was calm, not very aggressive. His aggression was on display in his batting.
I still remember watching his flashy batting in our junior cricket days and thinking he was a natural at white-ball cricket. Many felt the red-ball format might not suit him. The way he used to play in those days, I felt this was a proper cricketer who could take on the bowlers and be very aggressive, like we speak about Rishabh Pant or David Warner's style of Test batting. Ajju was like that as well, early on, before he had to change his game to become a bit more consistent and successful in red-ball cricket.
Lifting the ball over mid-on, mid-off, going over the covers - those shots used to come very naturally to him. He was also very strong on the off side. He tried to play on the up, and his cut shot was also very strong at that time. In junior cricket and even in the early years of his senior career, I used to look at him as someone who was fearless and tried to take on the bowlers.
When he walked in to bat, bowlers had to pull back their length. Because he used to play really well on the up against good length. In those early years his strike rate hovered between 80 and 100, even in red-ball cricket.
Ajju was never a flamboyant batter, but when it came to timing a cricket ball, he was among the best. Timing is about reading the bowler, reading the situation, reading the pitch, and then deciding whether you want to time the ball or hit it a bit harder. The advantage with timing is that you will get consistency and you will play with proper technique, so you won't lose your shape, which means the chances of succeeding, even if you mistime the ball, are high. Even if the ball is not going for a six, you will get a four.
Even in the shorter formats, when he timed the ball really well, especially against seamers, it looked like he was hitting it effortlessly. He would give that elevation over mid-on or mid-off or over covers and the ball would travel.
He also improved on his pick-up shot in the last two or three years. If you look at his IPL batting, where he hit in the arc between square leg and fine leg, an area where most batters will try and generate power, he was mostly flawless with his timing.
Batting with Ajju was fun. We had a very good understanding. Whenever the team was in trouble, both of us believed in each other, in making things happen, in taking the team out of trouble by building a partnership and turning things in our favour.
The best example of that was our partnership in the Bengaluru Test against Australia in 2017. We had lost the first Test badly in Pune.
At one point in the first innings in Bengaluru, we were in trouble, and when we were walking off at one point, Australia were in such a commanding position that they were almost celebrating a win. From there we had a massive partnership - adding 118 together in the second innings - which turned out to be a series-defining contribution. As we were walking off the field at tea on day three, I was getting a little provoked by the Aussies trying to sledge us, and I started talking back to them, telling them that the game was not over yet and that we'd see what happened. Ajju said to me: "Don't get affected. Let's focus on the partnership and our bats will do the talking." And eventually that's what happened.
Dealing with disappointments and frustrations like being dropped or not being selected, which was the case for both Ajju and myself towards the end of our international careers, is part of the journey. Naturally, we both spoke a lot about this but one thing we reminded each other about is that there will be outside noise and that is something you can't control. We both felt that the sad part is that even when you have contributed for the country for a long time, sometimes when you're going through a tough time as a batter, you don't get enough backing from the team management.
Ajju never gave up. The important part was that he kept playing for as long as he felt he had it in him. He still had hopes to make it back, which is also a good thing. You need to have that hope of making a comeback. That defines your character, because as a cricketer, if you don't have hope and if you are not playing for something, then there's no point.
Both of us started playing competitive cricket virtually at the same time, made our international debuts close to each other, became good friends as the years went by, and now we have retired within a year of each other.
I'm India Test cap No. 266, and my suggestion to Test cap No. 278 is to try and enjoy this time, because you have missed out a lot when it comes to spending time with your family, with your friends, and even enjoying life. Because every single day when you woke up, you were always thinking of training, running, gym sessions. So try and relax, enjoy this phase of life and forget about what happened in the past. It's important for every cricketer to move on from the game. Don't hold onto the past.