Gautam Gambhir Made a Big Statement On Ajinkya Rahane’s Place In India’s Playing XI: Veteran Indian batter Ajinkya Rahane is currently going through a rough phase in his career and the same has earned him a lot of criticism. Rahane was recently removed from the position of Team India’s vice-captain in Tests. In the longest format of the game, Rohit Sharma has been designated as Virat Kohli’s deputy.
There were even questions about his declining form and his place in the squad, especially when the young players like Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill are performing brilliantly with the bat. Ever since he scored his famous century on the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the MCG, he has been struggling to score runs He could only score 35 against New Zealand in Kanpur in the recently concluded match.
However, the Mumbai-based middle-order batsman has been selected in India’s 18-member Test squad for the South Africa tour.
Meanwhile, former Indian cricketer and world cup hero Gautam Gambhir has painted a bleak future for Ajinkya Rahane as he highlighted that it is very unlikely for Rahane to make it to India’s playing XI for the first Test against South Africa.
Recently, during an interaction on the Star Sports show ‘Follow the Blues’ Gautam Gambhir was asked about Ajinkya Rahane’s future. Responding to this, Gambhir said:
“Tough, that is what I can say because he is not a starter, to be honest. I feel Ajinkya Rahane will find it difficult to get a place in the playing XI,”
Gambhir also said that Rahane is unlikely to be preferred over the in-form duo of Shreyas Iyer and Hanuma Vihari. Gambhir said:
“You have got Shreyas Iyer; it will be very difficult for India or the captain to drop him because of his recent performances. At the same time, Hanuma Vihari has done really well as well,”
Shreyas Iyer recently impressed one and all with his heroics in his debut match in Kanpur, where he scored a century and a fifty. On the other hand, Hanuma Vihari gave a decent performance with the India-A team against South Africa.
Further, acknowledging that Ajinkya Rahane’s place in the playing XI, Sanjay Bangar, who was also a part of the same panel said:
“Ajinkya Rahane has got a place for the South Africa tour, and he should have got picked as well because you will definitely need experience there. Whether he gets to play in the first Test match is a question mark and the first match that is played before the Test match is going to be critical,”
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