Ajinkya Rahane Praises BCCI For Giving Importance To Domestic Cricket

Old guard Ajinkya Rahane understands the significance of religiously turning up for domestic matches to become a battle-hardened cricketer. So it came as no surprise when the batter Thursday lauded the BCCI for pushing players towards excelling in red-ball cricket. The BCCI has been actively urging the senior cricketers towards playing red-ball cricket, including domestic competitions such as the Ranji Trophy. "I want to mention about BCCI for giving importance to domestic cricket, which is a very good thing. Allowing players to go and play domestic cricket is very important," Rahane said after guiding Mumbai to a record-extending 42nd Ranji Trophy title.

The board had recently dropped middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer and wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan from the central contracts list for not taking the Indian team management's advice of playing Ranji Trophy in order to regain their form and prove their fitness.

Speaking about the triumph, Rahane said Mumbai must look to repeat this performance in the next season.

Mumbai won the premier domestic competition for the first time since 2015-16, defeating Vidarbha by 169 runs in the final here at the Wankhede Stadium.

In fact, for the Ranji Trophy behemoths, it was their 11th win in 13 finals alone at the Wankhede.

"For us, what is important is that (in the) last couple of years, as a team we are playing good cricket. Our players are actually going into Indian team and representing Indian team which is a very good sign for Mumbai cricket again," Rahane told the media after leading his team to title triumph.

"I'm not too bothered about other teams, but from here on, for Mumbai cricket, it is important to keep growing, keep thinking about how can we get better as a team in all