‘Had to forget that 36-all out like a bad dream’

“I had to literally forget about the 36 all-out and come back into the moment as quickly as possible. We all were shattered that time, everyone was in shock and I thought it was a bad dream,” Rahane recalled during the launch of Fortis Hospital Mulund’s Sports Injury Clinic on Friday

Ajinkya Rahane, who masterminded India’s miraculous turnaround in the 2020-21 Test series against Australia, said a regrouping and healing session after the ‘Adelaide Nightmare’ helped the “shattered” team bounce back and win the series 2-1.

In the day-night Test, the Aussies bowled out India for their lowest-ever total of 36. But the tourists emerged winners in the Tests at Melbourne and Brisbane, besides managing a draw at Sydney despite the absence of regular skipper Virat Kohli, who flew back to India because of personal reasons.

“I had to literally forget about the 36 all-out and come back into the moment as quickly as possible. We all were shattered that time, everyone was in shock and I thought it was a bad dream,” Rahane recalled during the launch of Fortis Hospital Mulund’s Sports Injury Clinic on Friday.

“But eventually, the next day when I got up, I realised [that] it [had] actually happened [36 for nine],” said Rahane, who later scored a gritty century in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne to help India level the series with an eight-wicket win.

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Rahane said recovering mentally from suffering such a setback was important and the Indian players were given time off to gather thoughts. “Before talking to my teammates, I spent a good half-an-hour talking to myself and then tried to convince myself that ‘let’s be in the moment and let’s not focus on the result or the outcome,’ ” he said.

“But I had to get my mind in the moment, I said ‘I am not going to think about cricket for the next two days. We are in Adelaide, we are going to think about my own and the team’s game plan once we are in Melbourne,’ ” he added.

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