The Indian captain, Virat Kohli has extended his support to out-of-form batsman Ajinkya Rahane, who has been going through a tough phase. Ajinkya Rahane has been struggling badly with his form ever since he scored his famous century on the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the MCG.
Ever since then he has been struggling to score runs. He has not gone beyond single-digit scores eight times this year. His best scores have been 37 at Brisbane, 67 against England at the Chepauk, 49 against New Zealand in the WTC at Southampton, and 61 against England at Lord’s.
Rahane led the Indian side, in the absence of regular skipper Virat Kohli, but yet again he failed to leave a mark with his bat. He could only score 35 against New Zealand in Kanpur in the recently concluded match. Lack of runs from Rahane’s bat has led to fingers being pointed at him and his place in the Indian Test team.
However, as per the Indian skipper, the think tank isn’t bothered by the continued criticism of Ajinkya Rahane as people on the outside don’t exactly know what’s going on in the team. Speaking at the virtual press conference after India’s win in Mumbai, Kohli said that team won’t make decisions based on the environment outside. He said:
“I cannot judge Ajinkya’s form. I think no one can judge it. The individual in question knows the areas of the game he needs to work on. We need to back players who have come up with impact performances for us in the past under difficult circumstances in key Test matches.”
He added:
“If there is some pressure on an individual and people start creating an environment wherein everyone is asking “what happens next?”, we don’t entertain that as a team. We cannot expect that balance outside. The same people who praise certain players want them out of the team after two months. We have never reacted like that and we never will because we know the amount of effort that goes into it (playing the game). We will support him, whether it is Ajinkya or someone else. We won’t take a decision based on the atmosphere outside.”
While Rahane is going through a tough time with the bat, Virat himself is struggling to score a century since November 2019. Virat, who was rested in Kanpur Test, contributed 0 and 36 in India’s 372-run triumph in Mumbai. During the conference, Virat was asked if a batter needs to alter his game to try to overcome the challenges, Kohli said:
“It’s the usual process that you follow. You keep working hard on your game. When there are no obvious dismissal patterns, then you have to persevere. You need to understand that you are going out there and batting 70-80 balls, unlocking that space mentally where you can start taking on the game a little bit. Sometimes those things come naturally and sometimes you have to wait and work hard for them. The one thing that is constant is the hard work that happens behind the scenes.”
