The sun was making its way through the morning haze in Bengaluru on Day 3 of the 1st Test between India and New Zealand at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. The crowd was all still waiting for the home team in all their excitement, when the young Rachin Ravindra, with his jersey dripped in sweat, raised his bat in front of the Chinnaswamy crowd. The board read 319/7 and 103* off 124 was added alongside Rachin Ravindra’s name. Not many in the crowd knew how precious this innings was for Ravindra; it was personal.
Rachin Ravindra’s Bengaluru Connection
Born on November 18, 1999, in Wellington, New Zealand, to Rachin Ravindra, the city-a half-a-world distance from Bengaluru-defined him just as strongly as the country he represented. His father, Ravi Krishnamurthy, grew up in Bengaluru before moving to New Zealand in 1997 to pursue a career as a software architect. Cricket, though, is what connects this sporting family. However Ravindra Sr. kept cricket alive in his household even after settling down in New Zealand. Each year, the boy Rachin would come back with his father to Bengaluru where, month after month, they played cricket with local teams, skills honed on the dusty practice pitches.
Ravindra Facing the Indian Attack
As Indian bowlers came at Ravindra with unrelenting pace and precision, he dug in. He had been in this position before—not just in his cricket career but right here, in this very city, where he grew up practicing against local players, learning how to read the unpredictable spin and bounce of Indian pitches. Now, as prophecies come true: those journeys back into Bengaluru during his childhood were helping prepare him for this moment of having to fight the best at a place so inextricably connected to family history.
A Century of Meaning
Runs began to pile up, slowly at first, as he began to play warily, then more freely as he got going. Every boundary that went out of sight while racing across the outfield felt like a message both to cricketing fraternity and his ancestral home: he belonged here. Some hours spent on Bengaluru’s dusty practice grounds seem to be paying dividends in front of thousands cheering fans.
Not Just Numbers
This century was all about history and identity, it meant being a New Zealander but of Indian soil. The stories Rachin Ravindra’s dad would tell him about cricketing culture, passion for the game, and big heroes from this city were always stuff of wonder. Now here was Rachin carving a slice of his name into history in a place he considered a home in his heart. His innings was for all those annual pilgrimages to his father, to the countless hours his dad had spent nursing his love for the sport, and that bond stretching across continents.
A Century – More Personal and Emotional
The crowd at Chinnaswamy, who were muted by the pressure he had built on their team, could not help but recognize the grace and grit of the young man at the crease. For Rachin Ravindra, this century—his maiden test match hundred in Asia—was a landmark. However, for him, more than that, it was a personal victory, a culmination of everything he had come to learn about the game, his heritage and himself. He wasn’t just playing for New Zealand or for his career. He was playing for a bond that encompassed greater stature than national borders, the intangible umbilical cord to that city.
It would have had their dad, who had taken him through this journey, crossed his mind as the young man finally raised his bat to the cheering crowds. It was a proud moment for the family that always, in their hearts, believed in cricket having the power to connect their past with their future. Rachin’s century was not only an innings but also a homecoming.
The Sportz Planet Desk,
Atharva Shetye
