Rahane wants to do that by not letting pressure, or even sledging, get the better of him in this Australian series
In Australia's previous tour of India in 2013, India had streamrolled the visitors in three Tests to win a four-match series. The last rubber, at Delhi's Feroz Shah Kotla, was inconsequential.
But for one man.
Ajinkya Rahane was making his Test debut after a long wait on the bench. A lot had been spoken about the young Mumbai batsman's talent and temperament. It was time for him to live up to it.
However, the youngster simply buckled under the immense pressure, getting out for seven and one in the two innings. The second dismissal exemplified his nervousness, getting holed out at deep midwicket trying to slog spinner Nathan Lyon.
He was dropped for India's next series against the West Indies, but came back in the following tour of South Africa.
Rahane has since evolved into being the mainstay of the young Indian batting line-up, the No. 5 batsman's composure being the perfect complement to the flair of the others batting around him.
And as he gears up to undo the wrong in 2013 in his second outing against the Aussies at home, there is a little cloud of pressure hovering around his head yet again.
The 28-year-old was struggling for runs in the three Tests against England last year before injuring his index finger ahead of the fourth one in Mumbai in December. The injury forced Rahane to miss the last two Tests of the series, and Karun Nair jumped on to his opportunity with a mammoth 303* in the final Test in Chennai.
Rahane was up and running ahead of the one-off Test against Bangladesh, and the Indian team management faced in dilemma in whom to choose at No. 5: a man who had scored a triple ton in India's previous Test or a man who had been the fulcrum of India's batting line-up over the last couple of years.
Virat Kohli and Anil Kumble went for the latter.
"Whatever knock Karun played, it was good to see that, getting 300 runs for our country. In the end, we all are representing India. I would like to thank my team management and captain. They backed me in the Bangladesh game. I wanted to back myself in the middle and I did that," Rahane said in Pune on Monday ahead of the first Test on February 23.
Rahane scored 82 and 28 in his comeback game. However, he would know that he'll need a few more runs than that against the Aussies for that cloud of pressure and uncertainty around him to clear.
"That innings was really important for me," Rahane said about that knock of 82. "I was really excited about that Test match, coming back after two months. I was looking forward to that Test match. Importantly, I got 82. I felt really good in the middle whatever time I spent.
"But it's important to start fresh here. Australia, we all know, is a very good team, an experienced team. So it's important to play to our potential and back ourselves in the middle," he added.
Rahane wants to do that by not letting pressure, or even sledging, get the better of him in this Australian series.
"We will look to play attacking cricket, positive cricket. Against not only spinners but all their bowlers," he said.
"We don't know whether they will sledge or not. For us, we have a plan for everything against them. We cannot reveal what the plan is – whether skill-wise or sledging-wise. But we know that Australians are pretty good at playing mind games. Let them do whatever they want to on the field. Our objective will be to dominate them in every aspect on the field," he added.
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