Ajinkya Rahane Bats With Grit But Fails To Get Big Score Again
Though India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane has emerged as a strong contender for captaincy after leading India to wins in two out of three Tests in Australia a few months ago, his batting has become a c
Though India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane has emerged as a strong contender for captaincy after leading India to wins in two out of three Tests in Australia a few months ago, his batting has become a cause of concern for the Indian team.
The Indian team's No.5 batsman has been below par with the bat, averaging 22.54 in 11 innings of seven Test matches that he has played this calendar year. The last time he scored a Test century was back in the second Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in December 2020. It was an innings that helped India script a revival in Australia following the humiliation in the first Test at Adelaide.
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Rahane was soon talked about as a serious contender to replace Virat Kohli. But while his stock as leadership material grew, his outings at the remained unproductive. Some of his innings have been fighting on difficult surfaces but small in terms of runs and, therefore, overshadowed by some brilliant knocks by Rishabh Pant and other youngsters over the past few months.
In the last 11 innings, Rahane has scored just one half-century, a 67 against England on a difficult Chennai pitch in the second Test in February. Sunday should have seen him get to his second half-century, a very important one. But he threw it away when he was just one run short of it.
Having mistimed a short ball from Neil Wagner, which fell in the vacant mid-wicket area, Rahane went for a pull again on the very next delivery from the left-arm seamer and scooped a catch to square-leg.
