Ajinkya Rahane is once again under the scanner of pundits and fans after his ordinary performance in the recently concluded Test series between New Zealand and India. Rahane looked clueless and confused in the middle, more often than not and didn’t have any impact on the game with his bat.
Former Indian cricketer and selector, Sandip Patil has made scathing remarks against Ajinkya Rahane after the New Zeland series. Patil believes that Rahane has the fear of failure and this one of the biggest reasons why he hasn’t been able to score runs freely.
Patil said that after getting dropped from India’s limited-overs sides, Ajinkya Rahane is trying hard to prove that he is a Test specialist.
“I heard about this (batting slowly) when he was playing for Mumbai this season. This happens due to the fear of failure. He has led India, he’s got a tremendous overseas record, but all that’s history. Now that he’s been labeled only as a Test player, been out of India’s limited-overs team, human nature is such that one wants to establish himself as a Test specialist. He’s trying to prove a point.” Sandip Patil explained.
“By doing that, you try to show that I’ll be technically correct. I’ll try to occupy the crease. If you want to just occupy,’ you can call a security guard! Who’ll score the runs?,” said Sandeep Patil, while talking to TOI.
Sandeep Patil also took a dig at India’s head coach Ravi Shastri and his support staff for Rahane’s poor show in New Zealand.
“If Ajinkya Rahane isn’t understanding this, what is Shastri, and the batting coach doing? If one batsman goes into a shell, the others follow, and the team suffers. Those who bats after such batsmen feel that the bowling is too good,” Patil concluded.
We would also like to know your views on this tweet:
Ajinkya Rahane is a very good batsman and I have admired his batting right from his early days.
But in the last couple of years, he hasn’t made a big impact with his batting. He looks low on confidence in the middle. I believe India should try @klrahul11 at no. 5 in Tests.
— Madhav Sharma (@HashTagCricket) March 5, 2020
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