India wicketkeeper batter Dinesh Karthik believes that India coach Rahul Dravid will consider dropping Pujara and Rahane from the next test if the duo fails in the second innings of the Johannesburg Test.
India finished the second day with a score of 85/2 as Pujara and Rahane remain unbeaten at the stumps. India is currently leading by 58 runs and in the absence of skipper Virat Kohli, they have a bigger responsibility as India will be chasing their first series win in South Africa. In the first innings of the second test, Duanne Olivier dismissed both of them on consecutive deliveries, Pujara scored a struggling 33-ball 3 runs while Rahane got out on a first-ball duck.
Speaking to Cricbuzz, Dinesh Karthik shared his views on the matter. He said that India had already given a very long rope and that hard decision is just around the corner.
“I do think Rahul Dravid will have to make a couple of hard decisions and if that means dropping one of them or both of them, he will be open to it because he knows that they have been given a long rope before,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
Pujara hasn’t scored a hundred since January 2019 while Rahane has crossed the fifty mark only twice in his last 25 test innings. Since January 2020 Pujara scored 868 runs in 35 innings with an average of 25.52 while Rahane scored 751 runs in 32 innings with an average of 24.22.
Karthik mentioned that Dravid might be taking his time as it’s his early days as India head coach but he would have figured things out in these 2 test series against New Zealand and South Africa.
“Removing Rahane from vice-captaincy might be a hint”- Dinesh Karthik
“It’s been three Test matches now that he has been the coach and you don’t want to, you know in many ways, just you know set the ground ablaze by making big decisions right at the outset. So, I think he’s waiting, taking his time, trying to obviously assess what he can contribute to them in their careers”, he said.
He also pointed out that removing Rahane from Test captaincy might be the hint for the things to follow.
“Obviously there was a hint previously itself when Rahane was removed from vice-captaincy. So, they are looking forward now. It was given to Rohit Sharma, but he is not there.” he added.
Pujara and Rahane will resume their innings on the third day with scores of 35 and 11 respectively as India will be eying to set a target of at least 250 in the Johannesburg Test.
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