Contrary to wider consensus on his form and spot in the Test side, the Indian team management stand right behind vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, with batting coach Vikram Rathour saying they back him to return to scoring ways quickly.
Rahane didn’t disturb the scorers on Day 4 at the Oval, getting out LBW to what was mostly a straight incoming ball from Chris Woakes. This was Rahane’s sixth failure in seven innings for the ongoing Test series in England.
Either side of the right-hander’s crucial second-innings 61 in the victory at Lord’s, he has had scores of 5, 1, 18, 10, 14 and now a 0 to show for his effort at the crease. Since the start of 2020, Rahane is averaging 24.76 over 27 Test innings, with only three scores of 50 or more.
The struggles of this period, accentuated by the previous three years of inconsistency, have meant that Rahane’s overall career Test average has fallen below 40 despite him now being a veteran of 78 Tests.
But even though there have been calls to drop him from the side among fans and the media, Rathour indicated that Rahane’s insipid run hasn’t yet reached a stage where it becomes a major concern for the Indian team management.
“Not at this point. As I have said earlier, when you are playing cricket for a such a long time you will have phases where you will not get runs.
That is the time as a team we need to back them and support them as much as we can.
As we saw with Pujara also – him getting more opportunities and he’s come back. He has played a couple of very important innings for us.”
“So we are hoping that Ajinkya will get back into form and he will still play a major role in Indian team’s batting. So I don’t think we have arrived to that point that it should become a concern.”
Rathour said at the post-day media briefing, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
The outside talk on Rahane’s spot is what it is for a reason. The right-hand batsman hasn’t been firing consistently since as far back as the middle of India’s elongated 2016-17 home season.
From the start of England’s visit to Indian shores five years back, Rahane is averaging only 33.07 over 49 Tests. And though the player has played some impactful knocks in difficult circumstances in this period, he hasn’t been the dependable regular performer that he was at the start of his career.
Such a prolonged dip in returns have also led to questioning marks on Rahane’s technique. But Rathour doesn’t think there is any major chink in the batter’s armoury, also suggesting that if there is one, it would not be wise to force the issue and address it during a series.
“I don’t think we are looking at technique at this stage at all,” “There is time and place to work on technique, I don’t think it is mid-series or mid-game. So if there are any issues it can be addressed later when he has time.”
“But at this point of time everything that is being discussed is about the game plans, how they approach the innings, what they are thinking when they are playing and looking to score runs. That’s it.”
he said, not just for Rahane but all Indian batsmen.
In the fourth Test, Rahane has been pushed one spot down the order to No.6, with premier all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja batting No.5. When asked for the rationale behind the move, Rathour said the idea was to maximise the form that Jadeja has shown with the bat and see how it impacts “our balance and momentum in the middle”, with no long-term decision taken in this regard yet.
