Rahane, the leader, does things his own way at KKR

Towards the end of another uneasy night, when the press conference room of Eden Gardens smelled faintly of sweat and impatience, Ajinkya Rahane smiled in the way unassuming leaders do when they know the joke is partly on them.

- Somshuvra Laha

KKR had just slipped again, their campaign threatening to dissolve before even the norwesters had had their say in this part of the world.

A reporter, perhaps trying to lighten the mood, congratulated Rahane for “working hard” despite the losses. The room murmured awkwardly. Rahane paused, looked up, and delivered the line that instantly ricocheted through the room. “Thank you,” he said. “Someone has finally appreciated me for my hard work.”

It was funny because it was dry. It was devastating because it was true. Rahane has always existed in Indian cricket as a kind of contradiction: technically elegant in an age of randomness, emotionally restrained in a sport that increasingly rewards performance theatre. In T20s, he has long seemed almost an aberration, a man carrying Test-match eyes into a carnival. And yet here he is, at 37, quietly becoming the emotional centre of KKR’s season that was perceived to be lost before even halfway. Not through domination or charisma, but through old school endurance.