Gautam Gambhir Questioned Ajinkya Rahane’s Place In The Indian Squad: Team India recently thrashed the New Zealand cricket team to register a complete whitewash of 3-0 over the Kiwis in the just concluded 3-match T20Is. Team India will now lock its horns with the Kiwis after a long gap of 5 years. The Indian skipper, Virat Kohli has been rested for the first fixture of the series, and Ajinkya Rahane will be leading the home team.
While Virat will return back to lead the side in the 2nd Test match, the likes of key players including Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Burmah, and Mohammed Shami have been rested for both the fixtures.
Ahead of the much-awaited Test series, former Indian opener and World Cup hero Gautam Gambhir shared his take on the opening combination of team India in the absence of Rohit Sharma. Speaking on Star Sports, Gautam Gambhir picked Mayank Agarwal as the opening partner of KL Rahul, while also backing Shubman Gill to bat in the middle-order.
By talking about the same, Gambhir also talked about India’s vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane as he questioned his place in the Indian squad. He feels Rahane is very fortunate to be a part of the playing squad. He said:
“I am going to open with Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul because he opened in England and then probably Shubman Gill will bat at No. 4. That’s what I would want to see and plus Rahane is pretty fortunate that he’s still part of this side because he’s leading… But again he’s got another opportunity now, hopefully, he can make that count,”
What should #TeamIndia‘s batting line-up look like? ?
Learn @GautamGambhir & @IrfanPathan‘s #GamePlan for the Test series:
Tonight, after the #Byjus #CricketLIVE post-show | Star Sports Network pic.twitter.com/ZDQ08wLnGx
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) November 21, 2021
For the unversed, Ajinkya Rahane has been struggling with the bat for a long time now. He amassed 268 runs in 4 Tests against Australia in 2020/21. In fact in the home series against England, Rahane averaged 18.66 for his 112 runs across 6 innings.
In the World Test Championship final, Rahane scored 49 and 15 balls. However, he could only score 109 runs at 15.57 in the four-Test matches that followed. Meanwhile, the Indian test specialist is expected to make a return in the home series.
