Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli has backed the struggling Indian team’s Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, after a poor string of bad performance.
There has been a lot of talk going on around the cricket fans and experts that Ajinkya Rahane has failed to perform in the last couple of matches and should now be dropped from the team to make way for the youngsters
Indian team was in the hand of a very reliable middle-order batsman in Ajinkya Rahane. But, he has failed to contribute much this year for the team. In the last 5 Test matches, the Mumbai batsman has scored 148 runs only (excluding the 2nd Test in Mumbai), and that includes only one half-century.
While he has not scored a single century this year, with highest being 67 runs against England earlier this year in February.
Other than that, with youngsters coming in, the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Suryakumar Yadav, is also adding extra pressure on Rahane.
Virat Kohli spoke in support of Rahane
Indian team captain Virat Kohli touched upon the topic during a virtual press conference after the 2nd Test match against New Zealand.
Kohli said that neither him nor can anyone judge Rahane’s form. He continued that the man in question knows the area where he needs to work and the team needs to back the players who have been a key player for the team over the years.
Virat Kohli -“Nobody can judge Ajinkya Rahane. He obviously knows what he has to do. You should back those who have delivered in hard times. We do not react like the public and back all the players not based on what others think about them.”
— K I R A N 🇮🇳 (@Kiran_reddy_k) December 6, 2021
He further added that there are people who praise a certain player and then wants them out two months later. He said that the team has never reacted like that and never will because the team knows the amount of effort goes behind playing cricket.
Virat Kohli on Ajinkya Rahane – “We can’t control outside things because people who praise him one day want him to get dropped on other day, we don’t create environment like this. We back our players who have preformed for us on difficult situation.”
— Rohith (@Rohithcric) December 6, 2021
He ended the topic by saying that the team will support Ajinkya Rahane and will not make any decision based on the atmosphere outside.
Ajinkya Rahane Test Stats
Ajinkya Rahane has always been a great addition in the Indian team’s middle-order. He has great leadership qualities as well, but it is his batting that is coming his way. The batsman’s batting average in Test cricket has gone down below 40 now. Rahane has played 79 Test matches and has scored 4795 runs.