Former Indian batter Ajinkya Rahane recalled the advice he received from ex-England skipper Ben Stokes from IPL 2017 after recently announcing his retirement from all forms of the game. Rahane and Stokes played together for Rising Pune Supergiant in IPL 2017, and the latter told the former to stay away from social media.
Rahane said the advice worked wonders for him, and he deleted all the social media apps from his phone when he was playing.
The Mumbai batter played 85 Tests, 90 ODIs and 20 T20Is for India while also featuring in 212 IPL games for six teams. Rahane amassed 5077 Test runs at an average of 38.46, including 12 centuries, out of which eight came in overseas conditions.
Rahane said on the Overlap Cricket YouTube Channel, “I delete all the social media apps when the series is on. But no one advises us to, and that’s just my own advice to myself. I remember Ben Stokes advising me not to see social media in 2017 when we played together in the IPL. Creating a routine helped me individually deal with this once I am in my room. Just things like watching something on Netflix or some other app, reading a book, chatting to family, and ironing my clothes for the next day.”
“I have my team who manage everything. Whatever I’ve to post, I generally send them the photo, and if there is anything to be approved, they’ll send it to me. This really helped me a lot on tours. There is a temptation to log in to these apps when you have done well and see all the comments. But that’s just temporary; what people talk about you.”
On the other hand, Rahane said former Indian skipper MS Dhoni was always calm, and his room was mostly occupied by the whole squad.
“He’s (MS Dhoni) very calm and cool and just a very normal human being like everyone. His room was almost always open for anyone to do anything. So many times, 10 to 15 of them or even the whole team was in his room. But when his door was shut, no one was allowed,” said Rahane (via the aforementioned source).
Rahane played like a gentleman, and he can be really proud of his impressive career.
