Twitterati shocked as India drop Ajinkya Rahane for the first Test against South Africa

The first Test of the three-match series between India and South Africa will finally get underway at Newlands in Cape Town on Friday. The much-awaited series has already thrown a lot of surprises with South Africa dropping Temba Bavuma for AB de Villiers. They’ve also decided to attack India with four premier fast bowlers. The quartet of Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada will play together for the first time. However, the most surprising decision was to drop Ajinkya Rahane and Twitterati was literally left shocked.

Ajinkya Rahane was the best batsman for the visitors when they last toured the country and he was going through a lean patch during the home season. But the team management including the skipper Virat Kohli had backed him to come good in South Africa. But it seems that Rahane continued to struggle in the nets with the team emphasising a lot on current form. Though the decision to leave him out was harsh as he is the vice-captain of the Test side. It would be interesting to see the way things pan out in the game.

Bumrah makes his debut

The Indian team continued to throw surprises as they handed the debut to Jasprit Bumrah. As Kohli informed at the toss, he was the most impressive bowler at the nets but nobody would’ve expected him to get a crack in the first game of the series itself. He would be hoping to make the most of the opportunity presented and impress in his debut series now. The selections prove that the current Indian side isn’t feared to take tough decisions but a lot would be feeling currently for Ajinkya Rahane who has often become the scapegoat for the team.

He is already out of the ODI team with him being tipped as the backup opener for Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan. Rohit has taken his place in the side purely based on the form he is in. But his record overseas is not good at all and would be under pressure to perform given the team is playing a batsman less. Twitter was excited for the game to begin and lest expected the dropping of Rahane and naturally were disappointed. While they trolled Kohli for the same but welcomed Bumrah to Test cricket as well.

Here’s how Twitter reacted to the dropping of Rahane: