Sourav Ganguly Backs Ajinkya Rahane Despite Dip in Form in Test Series
Nov 28, 2016 at 2:27 PM
Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly has backed Ajinkya Rahane saying the Mumbaikar is as good a batsman in Tests as India’s current poster boy Virat Kohli. Speaking to India Today, Ganguly said Rahane should not be worried about his spot in the side even after a lukewarm show in the five innings so far where he has scored only 63 runs.
He further advised the under-fire batsman to not think much about the runs and should rather “pluck it out of his system”.
“I’ll tell him to just take this (poor run) out of your system, go out and enjoy, have a dinner and come back tomorrow and just take it out of your mind. India will field again tomorrow so he does not have to bat”, he said.
Rahane’s dip in form came in the ODI series against New Zealand where he scored just one half century and now haunts him in this ongoing series. In the Test series prior to that, Rahane notched up a magnificent 188 at Indore.
However, applauding the batsman’s ability to play tactically defensive on often occasions, Ganguly said that Rahane still looks good with his stance even after he was adjudged LBW of Adil Rashid’s delivery for just nought.
“Rahane is a very intense cricketer and you could see that in his front foot defence , even when he missed the line of the ball his head was down and he was all the way forward to the delivery trying to get everything correct”.