Ajinkya Rahane was dismissed for a duck in the second innings of the Oval Test. His poor run continues amid talks of him being benched in the final Test match. There were serious predictions of him being rested at the Oval but he was included in the XI despite his poor form. India batted better in the second innings scoring 466 and setting up a target of 368 for England to chase.
Addressing the press conference after the fourth day’s play, the Indian batting coach had some questions thrown at him regarding Ajinkya Rahane’s poor form. When questioned about Rahane being dropped from the next Test, Vikram Rathour responded in the negative.
“Not at this point. As I have said earlier as well, when you play cricket for such a long time, you will have phases where you won’t get runs. That’s a time when as a team, you need to back them and support them as much as possible. We saw that with Pujara also, he got more opportunities and [made a] come back, he’s played a couple of important innings for us,” Rathour said in a press conference after being asked if Rahane’s form was becoming a concern for Team India.
Ajinkya Rahane Will Get Back Into Form: Vikram Rathour
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The Indian batting coach further said that the whole team is backing Rahane to return back into form and he will continue to play a major role in the team in the future as well.
“We are hoping that Ajinkya will also get back to form, and he’ll, you know, still play a major role in the Indian team’s batting. So, I don’t think we have arrived to that point where it should become a concern,” he added.
Rahane has averaged a lowly 15.57 so far in the ongoing Test series and is one of the lowest scorers for Team India so far. Meanwhile, England chasing 368 has already scored 77 and needs another 291 on the final day to win the Test match.
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