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“I Cannot Judge Ajinkya’s Form” – Virat Kohli Opens Up On The Veteran’s Test Future

Ajinkya Rahane Virat Kohli

(Credit: BCCI)

Team India captain Virat Kohli has offered his support to underfire Ajinkya Rahane saying that continued criticism doesn’t bother the think tank because people on the outside don’t exactly know what’s going on in the team.

Rahane has been struggling with his form for quite some time now. He registered scores of 35 and 4 against New Zealand in Kanpur before missing the Mumbai Test with a hamstring injury. With Shreyas Iyer making a case for himself with a hundred on debut, the pressure has continued to mount on Ajinkya Rahane.

But Virat Kohli has continued to downplay the criticisms, saying the management will continue to back Rahane and all other players. Addressing the press at the end of the match, Kohli stated:

“I cannot judge Ajinkya’s form. I think no one can judge it. The individual in question knows the areas of the game he needs to work on. We need to back players who have come up with impact performances for us in the past under difficult circumstances in key Test matches.”

He continued:

“If there is some pressure on an individual and people start creating an environment wherein everyone is asking “what happens next?”, we don’t entertain that as a team. We cannot expect that balance outside. The same people who praise certain players want them out of the team after two months. We have never reacted like that and we never will because we know the amount of effort that goes into it (playing the game). We will support him, whether it is Ajinkya or someone else. We won’t take a decision based on the atmosphere outside.”

Ajinkya Rahane has so far scored  4795 runs at an average of 39.30 from 79 Tests.


“You keep working hard on your game” – Virat Kohli on century drought

The talismanic run-scorer has gone without scoring a century for almost two years now. Asked if a batter needs to alter his game to try and overcome the challenges, Virat Kohli asserted that one needs to work hard to hit the strides.

“It’s the usual process that you follow. You keep working hard on your game. When there are no obvious dismissal patterns, then you have to persevere. You need to understand that you are going out there and batting 70-80 balls, unlocking that space mentally where you can start taking on the game a little bit. Sometimes those things come naturally and sometimes you have to wait and work hard for them. The one thing that is constant is the hard work that happens behind the scenes,” Kohli added.

Virat Kohli’s last Test century came in November 2019 and will be desperate to end the barren run when India tour South Africa.


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