Rahane has had a successful stint with Rajasthan Royals so far, playing with a copybook technique under Rahul Dravid's mentorship but Amre's 'Out of the Box' thinking has led to him trying to rejig his game to meet the demands of T20 cricket.
Explaining the rationale behind using baseball hitting technique, he said,"Australians developed throwing techniques from baseball to minimise the injuries. You need to throw the ball at a good pace and in quick time, and the right technique of throwing is important. So I thought why not implement the hitting technique of baseball. So I experimented and tried it myself."
"T20 is a totally different format. I have trained him to generate power in his shots. It is crucial to perform with power in this format. In T20 power hitting matters. Instead of using just the arms and shoulders to strike the ball, I have told him to use his entire core to hit the ball," Amre said.
Amre further said he and Rahane worked on the mental aspect of the game as well, to prepare the 25-year-old for opening the innings or playing down the order.
"For the last 3-4 days, we have been working. We have also worked on the mindset. How he will approach the game if he is opening, or what will be his mindset when he is batting lower down the order or when there is a six to be hit off the last ball. I won't recommend this (baseball) technique for Tests and ODIs, but only for T20," he said.