After suffering a humiliating defeat in the first Test match, Ajinkya Rahane led team India bounced back into the game and scripted a historic win over Australia in the Boxing-Day Test match.
Ajinkya Rahane, the stand-in skipper along with Shubman Gill took the Indian cricket team to the winning side on Day 4 of the Boxing-Day Test match.
Chasing a modest 70 runs in the second innings, Team India started off on a bad note as they lost their opener, Mayank Agarwal, early. To make things worst, India’s Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara was dismissed on 3 runs. However, Shubman Gill and stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane put on a stellar show and took India to victory. While Shubman scored 35 off 36 balls, smashing 7 fours. Ajinkya Rahane scored the winning run and was unbeaten on 27 runs.
Meanwhile, after the match, Ajinkya Rahane, who was also awarded the Man of the Match award expressed his delight over the way his teammates bounced back in the game. Rahane was all praises for the young debutants Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj for their amazing performances.
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? 27*India captain Ajinkya Rahane has been adjudged as the Player of the Match after leading from the front in the second #AUSvIND Test ?
How impressed are you with his performance? pic.twitter.com/JV6FBVWAcS
— ICC (@ICC) December 29, 2020
Rahane appreciated Shubman Gill for the way he played his shots and praised Siraj for showing good discipline with the ball. He said:
“Really proud of all the players. Played really well. Want to give credit to the debutants Siraj and Gill, the character they showed after the Adelaide loss was great to see. Character was important for us, especially after losing Umesh in the second innings. That (five-bowler plan) worked well for us nicely,”
He added:
“We were thinking of having an all-rounder and Jadeja has been brilliant for us. Shubman, we all know his First-class career and in this game, he has shown the intent to play shots at this level. Has shown composure. Siraj has shown that he can bowl with discipline. It’s really difficult for debutants to bowl with discipline but that’s where I think the First-class experience comes in handy,”
Furthermore, Ajinkya Rahane made it clear that the team is not in the mood to get carried away after the win. He pointed out that there was still a lot to learn from the team. He said:
“The talk was all about showing the attitude and intent on the field. As I said, character. Adelaide was about one hour that took the game away from us. Lots to learn for even now. Australia applied themselves with their last five wickets,”
