Ajinkya Rahane picks shyest player in Indian team, toughest place to bat

All eyes will be on Ajinkya Rahane in the upcoming two-match Test series against Windies. Not very long ago, Rahane was the batting mainstay of the team. In fact, he was India’s best performer in overseas Tests. Rahane had impressed in England, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa to prove his credentials.

Those were the performances that helped him earn the vice-captaincy of the Test team. However, Rahane’s form in the last couple of years has been nothing less than awful. The right-handed batsman is going through a wretched run of form. His last Test century came more than two years and 17 Tests ago. Since his last Test century, Rahane has made only five 50-plus scores. He averages a modest 24.85 during this period.

Time is running out for Rahane. With the likes of Rohit Sharma and Hanuma Vihari waiting in the ranks, another poor series could very well see Rahane losing his place in the Test side. He will be desperate to do well against West Indies. The start of the tour has been promising for him as he scored a fifty in the warm-up game.

Ahead of the Test series, Rahane gave a fun interview to ESPN Cricinfo where he was asked 25 questions. As usual, the questions were interesting and Rahane also made sure to answer all of them. One of the most interesting questions was about the shyest person in the Indian dressing room. In reply, Rahane picked the name of pacer Umesh Yadav.

He was then given a hypothetical situation in which he ran out Rohit Sharma while he was batting on 199 in an ODI. When asked what would be Rohit’s reaction, Rahane said that his Mumbai teammate would not overreact and would just move on.

He further said that he would like to see Riteish Deshmukh play his role in his biopic since the actor hails from Maharashtra. In another interesting question, Rahane was asked about the toughest place to bat and he came up with England.

Here is a clip of the whole interview:

Support from Virat Kohli

Meanwhile, Virat Kohli’s recent statement will also boost Rahane’s confidence. Before the start of the West Indies tour, skipper Kohli had publicly thrown his support behind Rahane.

“Jinks [Rahane] has been a solid player for us through and through and that’s always been our communication,” Kohli had said.