With pressure piling on Ajinkya Rahane due to his consistent poor displays, the Mumbai batsman has found a much-needed support from head coach Anil Kumble.
The 28-year-old has become one of the batting mainstays of the Test team after scoring heavily in the last couple of years or so. However, his indifferent performance in the ongoing season has raised a question on his place in the playing XI. The right-handed batsman began the home series on a brilliant note by scoring 347 runs in six innings against New Zealand but since then, he has struggled to maintain his form. In the ODI series against the same opposition, he scored only 143 runs in five outings and followed it with another poor series. Rahane hit only 63 runs in five innings during the England series before an injury cut short his series.
On the other hand, his replacement- Karun Nair grabbed the opportunity with both hands and scored a triple hundred in the final Test in Chennai, becoming only the second Indian to do so. However, the team management followed the recent trend of backing the regular players and included Rahane straightaway in the Test team during the one-off Test against Bangladesh. And although he justified the team management’s faith in him by scoring 82 in his comeback innings, failures in three subsequent innings including the series opener against Australia in Pune where he scored 13 and 18, has forced the critics to take an aim at him.
However, Anil Kumble is unfazed by all the criticism and has said even the question of dropping the batsman does not arise.
Speaking ahead of the second Test that begins on Saturday (March 4), Kumble said:
“I think there is no question of dropping Rahane. He has scored really well. He’s been extremely successful over the last couple of years. There is absolutely no question about that.”
The former India bowler further said Nair was left out from the team to make the best possible playing XI. The Indian team has been playing with five bowlers for quite some time now and Kumble has hinted the team would persist with the same combination in the coming days.
“In terms of the team composition, we still haven’t discussed on that. All 16 are available. It’s unfortunate that Karun missed out after he scored the triple hundred. But that’s the way the composition of the team has been where we have looked to play five bowlers and it’s unfortunate he came in as a replacement. It was really nice to have those kind of choices in the team where people have been successful in a group,” Kumble said.
“And like I mentioned before that’s the beauty about this group where whoever comes in has done really well. And people have had to be left out because of the composition and the combination that we go with,” he concluded.