Indian batsman Ajinkya Rahane finally reached a three-figure score in Tests once again after a little over two years, when he looked up the sky in Antigua in the first Test against West Indies and spared a moment to take it all in.
Speaking about the century in the pre-match press conference ahead of the second Test in Jamaica starting on Friday, Rahane admitted to being a little emotional when the moment finally arrived.
“I was a little bit emotional,” he said. “I thought the 10th hundred was really special. I wasn’t thinking about any particular celebration, it came out automatically. It took me two years to get that 10th hundred. As I said the process always matters to me a lot. Preparations before each and every series is very important. I was actually doing that throughout the two years, and so (this century) was really special.”
“We were under pressure (in the first innings). I thought West Indies bowled really well in that session, throughout that day. It was an opportunity for me to do something special for my team. Scoring 81, I think because of the situation I wasn’t thinking about myself because it was important to get that partnership going – one player has to stay and bat and we knew that. I thought it was something special for me personally as well because we knew we were in a difficult position at that point of time and happily we did really well and came back strongly from that point.
“I knew that partnership with Virat was very crucial. And basically, because of that team thinking, the pressure was completely off. And it was really special getting that hundred after two years.”
