'Who'll score the runs?' - Sandeep Patil slams Ajinkya Rahane for his slow batting in New Zealand

Team India, after the recent loss in the One Day International and Test series against New Zealand, has been facing a lot of criticism from the cricket community. Every department of the team has come under the scanner and no one is refraining from voicing out their opinions in the public domain.

And, the most recent one to do so was the former Team India chief selector, Sandeep Patil who critically spoke about the team’s vice-captain, Ajinkya Rahane’s poor batting performance. India faced a whitewash in both the One Day International and Test series, which exposed a lot of shortcomings in the line-up. Star players failed to replicate the best of their performances and the others were of no match to the might of the New Zealand players.

And, the man in focus, Ajinkya Rahane also did not have a great outing. In the two Test matches, he batted in 4 innings and as able to accumulate only 91 runs at an average of just 22.75. These numbers are not good for any batsman playing at the highest level and for Rahane, they must be no less than a nightmare.

‘If you want to just occupy crease, call a security guard’: Sandeep Patil

It must have been due to this that Sandeep Patil was so critical of Rahane’s performances. “I heard about this (batting slowly) when he was playing for Mumbai this season. This happens due to the fear of failure. He has led India, he’s got a tremendous overseas record, but all that’s history.

Now that he’s been labelled only as a Test player, been out of India’s limited-overs team, human nature is such that one wants to establish himself as a Test specialist. He’s trying to prove a point,” Patil was quoted saying by the Hindustan Times.

Patil also spoke about how it was not a good move by Rahane to just occupy the crease and how this move of a senior player like him caused a lot of damage to the team’s performance. He also compared him to a security guard who could be designated to stand in for Rahane if all he wants is to stay on the crease.

Patil said– “By doing that, you try to show that ‘I’ll be technically correct. I’ll try to occupy the crease. If you want to just occupy, you can call a security guard! Who’ll score the runs?”