Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir opens up about Ajinkya Rahane being fortunate. On Sunday, he admitted that the stand-in skipper for the impending opener against New Zealand in Kanpur is pretty fortunate that he is still in the squad.
On November 25, Ajinkya Rahane became a trending topic among the cricket lovers. He is “pretty fortunate” to be still part of the Indian squad as the player is the captain and Gambhir was seen stating how he hopes that the senior batsman makes the most of the Test series. He hopes for Ajinkya to once again make his place super strong in the team. In the last 15 Tests, Rahane amassed 644 runs at an average of 24.76.
The tally has no specification of that magnificent match-winning hundred in Melbourne which happened last year in the month of December. The player has been seen facing a lot of challenges struggling to live up to the expectations of his team and his fans and surely his struggle is real. His entire career highlighted his struggles and now his career average falling below 40 for the first time since November 25, 2015, that is eight days before his back-to-back centuries. The match was a memorable one which was played against South Africa in New Delhi.
Gambhir’s comment popped up in the Star Sports show ‘Game Plan’. It was where he picked Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul to open in the first Test and this is also where they played while slotted in Shubman Gill at No.4. Gambhir said, “I am going to open with Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul because he opened in England, and then probably Shubman Gill will bat at No. 4.”That’s what I would want to see and plus Rahane is pretty fortunate that he’s still part of this side because he’s leading… But again he’s got another opportunity now, hopefully, he can make that count.”
Gambhir was not the only one questioning Rahane’s performance and place in the squad as before in this month, former cricketer Aakash Chopra was seen speaking about the decision to name Rahane the captain for the opener too. He was seen admitting that his place in the squad was itself a big question saying, “You have picked Ajinkya Rahane as the captain. But the truth is also that, let’s be honest, there was a question about him being selected for the last Test against England if the match had happened,” he said on his official YouTube channel.
“As much as I like Ajinkya Rahane, the fact is that the average has been seen falling down only. There has been an odd good knock in between for sure but the average has fallen 20 points in the last two years. Rahane’s average has never gone so low.” The Test series matches will be soon beginning of the second cycle of the World Test Championship. It is with New Zealand starting their title-defence campaign. It is against the side they faced in the finals that happened in Southampton before in June.
