The legendary Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar is very impressed with the captaincy of the stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane during the ongoing second of the four-match Test series against Australia in the absence of Virat Kohli, who left for India after the first Test match to be there with his wife during the birth of their child.
Rahane-led team India has been dominating the ongoing 2nd Test match so far. On Day2 of the 2nd Test match, Rahane played an amazing knock of unbeaten 104 off 200 balls. Praising the knock, Gavaskar said that it was a “typical Test match century”. He said:
“It was a typical Test match century and a typical captain’s innings, showing from the front how to play on a pitch which was never easy to bat on. This is a kind of a pitch where no batsman can say he is well set. There is something or the other happening, there is a lit bit of carry, the odd ball has kept low, there has been turn for Nathan Lyon. So, no batsman can tell to himself even if he is batting on 60-70 that he is well set and he can go on to get runs. Pujara fell after Ajinkya Rahane came to bat. Vihari and him were new,”
Earlier, post first day-night test match, Sunil Gavaskar was asked about Ajinkya Rahane’s captaincy, responding to which the legendary batsman ‘cautiously’ praised Rahane. He said:
“Importantly, let’s not jump into conclusions too quickly. If I say that his captaincy is outstanding, then again, I will be accused of backing a Mumbai boy and all kinds of things will happen. So I don’t want to get into that because these are early days.”
He added:
“From what I have seen in the last 2 Tests he captained and the one-day matches he captained, he has got a great sense of where the fielders should be kept. Having said that, it’s very important for the bowlers to bowl to their field. If the bowlers bowl to the field, as they did today, then the captain looks very good,”
