IPL 2018: Zaheer Khan not happy with Rahane batting down the order for the Royals

The Rajasthan Royals (RR) thumped the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Jaipur in a must-win encounter to stay alive in the tournament. Despite missing their gun players Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, they put on a terrific performance against the star-studded side and came out to on top. While they almost had a perfect game on Saturday, their decision to promote Jofra Archer to open the innings left many perplexed. Moreover, the former Indian cricketer Zaheer Khan was not at all impressed with the skipper Ajinkya Rahane not opening the innings.

The Royals, this season, have struggled immensely at the top of the order before they were blessed with the decision of sending Buttler up the order. The inclusion of D’Arcy Short failed miserably while for they used Rahul Tripathi in the middle order for some strange reasons. Even the captain Rahane batted at number 3 for most of the matches despite being an opener naturally, the decision which hasn’t gone down well with the many.

Whose decision is it?

The Royals had to win the game against the RCB on Saturday as they opted to bat first on a slow track. Many were certain and happy about the fact that Ajinkya Rahane will finally get to open the innings which is a preferred slot. However, Jofra Archer came out to bat alongside Tripathi which completely shocked everyone. As it turned out, the move didn’t work with him getting out for a second ball duck to bring the skipper into the middle. Zaheer Khan though was not at all happy with it and took to Twitter to vent out his frustration.

He also went onto say that if Rahane himself has decided to come down the order or the management is forcing him to do so. “Ajinkya Rahane not opening for RR has been the biggest mystery for me #IPL2018 . Wonder if it’s his decision or the think tank’s ?” his tweet read. Though the Royals won the game, they are still not certain about their future in the tournament and must be praying that Mumbai Indians (MI) should lose against Delhi Daredevils (DD) on Sunday.

Here’s Zaheer’s tweet:

Ajinkya Rahane not opening for RR has been the biggest mystery for me #IPL2018 . Wonder if it’s his decision or the think tank’s ?

— zaheer khan (@ImZaheer) May 19, 2018

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