Dissecting Ajinkya Rahane’s cheap dismissal in the 4th Test of the ongoing bilateral series between Virat Kohli-led Team India and hosts England, batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has explained why the vice-captain’s confidence took a massive hit at The Oval. One of the finest batsmen in the longest format for the Kohli-led side, Rahane has failed to live up to expectations in India’s tour of England.
At a time when Rahane was under the scanner owing to his poor form, the vice-captain was demoted to No.6 by the Indian think-tank in the Oval Test match. Ravindra Jadeja received a surprise promotion as the Indian all-rounder came out to bat at No.5 position in the 4th Test match. Weighing in on Rahane’s woeful form against England, Gavaskar spoke at length about the batting failures of the Indian vice-captain in the 4th Test match.
“That was a bad shot for a man out of form to be playing across the line towards square leg. There is no way the ball was going to meet the ball. His confidence is shot. He was not confident before because he hadn’t scored runs apart from that 60 at Lord’s. At Leeds, he hadn’t got runs,” Gavaskar told the Sony Sports Network.
Though Rahane has struggled to score runs for India in the five-match series, Gavaskar opined that the star batsman should not have been demoted to the No.6 position. “But now in the second innings as well, when Jadeja went ahead of him and it hasn’t worked – what it’s done to the psychology of a player is that it says ‘look, we are not showing any confidence in you’. The confidence has to be shown. He is not scoring runs but he should be told that at No. 5, you are our batsman’ not at 6. And that is what happened. No surprises, that he got out for 0,” Gavaskar added.
Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar also decoded Rahane’s batting no-show in the England series. Since the beginning of 2020, Rahane has averaged before 25 ( 24.76) in the longest format. In his previous 27 innings, Rahane has scored a single century along with two half-centuries.
“See, this is a guy who got a hundred at Melbourne. He was captain and India won the Test match. After that, he was out of form. And we still say he is out of form when he got a 60 and India won the Test match. He is one of the senior players in the team. So, a guy who gets these kinds of innings, a lease of life and still bats like this, there is something wrong,” Manjrekar added.
