Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar feels that Ajinkya Rahane is still the better bet for India at no.5 in the longer format. Ajinkya Rahane is currently the vice-captain of India in the test format, but recently his place is under scrutiny because of his inconsistent performance in the last 2-3 years.
The former Indian batsman believes that KL Rahul has been in sublime form in the T20 and 50 covers format, but performance in the limited-overs format should not be a yardstick to assess whether a player is good enough to play in Test cricket as he still has to prove himself in the longer format.
Ajinkya Rahane better batsman at No.5 – Sanjay Manjrekar
“KL Rahul has been brilliant at no.5. Yes granted, Rahane doesn’t look like the same player he was in the first two years of his Test career and I would like to see that kind of form back,” Manjrekar said in his YouTube channel where he was answering questions posted by his twitter followers.
But, despite Ajinkya Rahane’s inconsistency, Sanjay Manjrekar believes that the former is still the right choice for the No.5 batsman. Rahane has scored crucial runs for his side when it mattered the most.
“It comes in little sparse, sometimes but not as consistently as he would like. But based on his runs that he has got, I don’t think it is right to think of Rahul at no.5 in Test matches,” added Manjrekar.
He also reminded his fans that last time KL Rahul played, he was not very successful. Notably, Rahul last played in the longer format against West Indies. Sanjay Manjrekar said that in order for him to get back into the Test squad he will have to pile massive amount of runs at the domestic level just like his Karnataka teammate Mayank Agarwal.
“The last time he(Rahul) played Test cricket, he wasn’t that impressive and let’s not get too carried away with a batsman getting runs in T20 and 50 overs cricket and push into Test match cricket.
“So for KL Rahul to nudge the Indian batsmen at the test level in the middle – order he will have to get a truckload of runs at the domestic level, just like (Mayank) Agarwal did to get in the Indian team,” he explained.
