Just before the Ranji Trophy season begins, BCCI
president Sourav Ganguly suggested Ajinkya Rahane go back to domestic cricket
and perform there and cement his place in the Indian cricket team. Rahane has been
going through a tough phase of his career. On Friday, he registered a much
needed century to keep himself in contention for a place in the Indian squad
for the upcoming Sri Lanka Test series.

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Rahane scored 108 off 250 balls while guiding Mumbai
to 263 for 3 against Saurashtra in their opening match in the Ranji Trophy in
Ahmedabad on Thursday.

Opting to bat after winning the toss, Mumbai were also
boosted by Sarfaraz Khan’s unbeaten 121 off 219 balls on the first day of their
elite group D match. The focus was, however, on Rahane who ended the day at an
unbeaten 108 from 250 deliveries. He decorated his innings with 14 boundaries
and two sixes.

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The 33-year-old, who had failed to impress in the
South Africa tour in December-January, reached 100 off 212 balls.

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Prior to this, the senior middle-order batter had
scored just 136 runs in six innings in India’s 1-2 defeat in the Test series in
South Africa earlier this year.

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India will next play a Test series against Sri Lanka
at home from the first week of March after the T20I series gets over on
February 24. This century will definitely give him the confidence to get his
form back.

Meanwhile, Cheteshwar Pujara, who is also under fire
for constant failures, will also look to get a big knock in the game to ensure
the national selectors retain him for the series against Sri Lanka. Pujara is
playing for Saurashtra in the match against Mumbai.

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With new ball bowlers Jaydev Unadkat and Chetan
Sakariya operating well, Mumbai found themselves in trouble early on, losing
openers Aakarshit Gomel (8) and Prithvi Shaw (1) with just 22 runs on the
board. First-change Chirag Jani had Sachin Yadav trapped in front of the wicket
as Mumbai slipped to 44 for three.

However, Saurashtra failed to make any more inroads
after that as Rahane and Khan added 219 runs for the fourth wicket to put their
side in a comfortable position at stumps.