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Ajinkya Rahane, one of India's new young batsmen, today put India on top in wellington test against New Zealand with  his maiden test match century. He ended with 118 runs as India took a formidable lead of 246 runs. By the end of second day's play Indian bowlers had already taken 1 New Zealand wicket while the hosts still trail by 222 runs of India's total.

The scorecard at the end of 2nd day's play looked like this:

cricket score, New Zealand Vs Inda, 2nd test 2014 , stumps day 2 Wellington

Ajinkya Rahane played excellent knock and bought up his first test century, again highlighting the confidence the team management has shown in him. He missed a hundred in South Africa.

This is a new Indian team and the way new batsmen have been able to take responsibility is reassuring as far as future of Indian cricket is concerned.

The new talent consists of 5 major batsmen : 1) Cheteshwar Pujara 2) Virat Kohli 3) Shikhar Dhawan 4) Rohit Sharma 5) Ajinkya Rahane. Let us try and rank them based on their recent performance.

Rank #1 : Virat Kohli - First rank goes to Virat Kohli. This youngsters, right from the start of his career, has looked a special talent. He has shown that he can handle experienced test bowlers in their own conditions. His centuries in Australia, and South Africa, and many match winning knocks in ODI cricket are proof of the match winning contribution he has made to the Indian team. His main strength is his positive outlook and his ability to score quickly without playing any rash shots.

Rank#2 : Cheteshwar Pujara - He is in good books of all the X cricketers of India. He looks calm and composed but he is at 2nd place rather than 1 for us. This is because while kohli has shown the ability to dominate matches almost alone and change the complexion of the match single handed, Pujara hasn't shown such ability yet. He is close 2nd to Virat Kohli.

Rank #3 : Shikhar Dhawan - He is new Indian opener and has started to learn his trade recently. He took off with a world record fastest century on debut against Australia at Mohali. After that he struggle a bit against South African bowlers in their on conditions, but has hit back with a century and 98 runs innings in New Zealand. He was sensational in champions trophy held in England last year. Given that he had to face the new ball and that  he has not that much experience behind him, he has done quite well.

Rank#4 : Ajinkya Rahane - This classy batsmen is grabbing the opportunities with both hands. He had to wait long time before he finally get the opportunity to play in starting eleven of indian cricket team. He has shown excellent skills both in South Africa and New Zealand.

Rank#5 Rohit Sharma - He has been projected as the most talented Indian batsmen, mainly by cricketers from Mumbai, but he hasn't shown much of that, especially on foreign tours. He started off well with couple of test centuries. Also he had that double century in one day cricket, a rare feat to say the least. Overall though he needs to improve a lot and show the world what he has got to be called 'most talented'.

I know every one has his own opinion and many of you might not agree with my rankings of players. Never mind, you can always state your ranking by commenting on this cricket forum.