The way in which Ajinkya Rahane ran out Virat Kohli; he literally killed him: Shoaib Akhtar

The Indian team suffered an annihilation in the second innings of the first day-night Test against Australia in Adelaide. Winning the toss, India opted to bat first and managed to put up a total of 244 on the board on the back of a remarkable knock of 74 runs by skipper Virat Kohli. The Indian captain was in terrific form in the first innings having faced 180 balls in the middle.

However, a misjudgement by Ajinkya Rahane resulted in Kohli storming back to the pavilion after getting involved in a run-out. After Virat’s dismissal, India had gone from 188 for 3 to 244 all-out. Meanwhile, the visitors bowling unit weaved their magic on the field as Australia were folded at 191/10 by the end of the Day 2 and India managed to take a lead of 53 runs.

However, what followed after that was a horrible collapse of the Indian batting line-up in the second innings as they were quickly reduced to 36/9, their lowest Test innings total. Thus, the visitors lost the first Test by 8 wickets as Australia easily chased down the target of 90 runs. Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar analysed the defeat of the Indian contingent in the first Test on his YouTube channel.

India just surrendered in front of Cummins and Hazlewood: Shoaib Akhtar

Akhtar believes that Ajinkya Rahane is the main man behind India‘s defeat as he killed Virat Kohli by getting him run-out. The Rawalpindi Express asserted that the Indian skipper would have easily scored 150 or 200 runs in the first innings and the team would have had a better chance of making a comeback in the game.

“The way in which Ajinkya Rahane ran out Virat Kohli; he literally killed Virat Kohli. If Kohli would have gone on to make 150 or 200 and the lead would have been better, India would have had a chance of making a comeback.” Shoaib Akhtar said in a video uploaded on his YouTube channel,

Further, Akhtar posed questions on why the Indian batsmen changed their approach in the second innings and surrendered themselves in front of Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins who ended with 5 and 4 wickets respectively.

“India survived similar bowling in the first innings. So I don’t know why they had a different approach in the second innings. India just surrendered in front of Cummins and Hazlewood. I think it is really embarrassing and a very sad start to their Test series. India will remember this defeat for years to come,” Akhtar insisted.