Ajinkya Rahane to play for Leicestershire after tour of West Indies - Reports

Ajinkya Rahane is slated to play 50-over Royal London Cup and County matches.

Veteran India batter Ajinkya Rahane has signed a deal with English county club Leicestershire to play in division two, after finishing his two-Test assignment with the Indian team against the West Indies.

Ajinkya Rahane recently made his Test cricket return after over 18 months in the Indian team when he turned out for World Test Championship (WTC 2023) final in which he performed admirably, scoring 89 and 46 runs in the two innings as India fell to a 209-run defeat.

While most of the top Indian players will shift their focus to 50-over cricket, Rahane will get more red-ball game time through the month of September, before he is back in India for the full-fledged Indian domestic season, followed by a tour of South Africa in December.

Ajinkya Rahane to play Royal London one-day Cup and county matches for Leicestershire

As per sources, Rahane signed a contract with Leicestershire in January, and after his IPL season with Chennai Super Kings was over, he was scheduled to play eight first-class matches as well as the entire Royal London Cup (a domestic 50-over competition) between June and September.

However, the plan had to be shelved since he made a comeback to the Indian Test team and couldn’t join his county side immediately after the IPL was over.

“Ajinkya, after the two Tests in West Indies (which is supposed to end on July 24), is supposed to fly directly to England and join Leicestershire for the remainder of the season. He will play Royal London Cup in August and a possible four County games in September as he is unlikely to be a part of white ball scheme of things,” a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

This will be Rahane’s second county stint, having played for Hampshire in the 2019 season when he was dropped from the 50 over World Cup side.