Australia vs India: Rahane would not be under real pressure, Gavaskar.
Australia vs India: Former Indian batsman and renowned commentator, Sunil Gavaskar backed Ajinkya Rahane for the leadership role for the last three test games against Australia. Gavaskar showed faith in the dependable batsman to prove himself without any second thoughts.
Ajinkya Rahane will be leading the Men in Blues against Australia in the test series. Virat Kohli will be leading the side for the first game only then he will leave Australia as he is granted paternity leave by the BCCI. In his absence, Rahane will take charge of the team in the remaining Test games.
Gavaskar feels, Rahane will not be under any pressure to lead the side against Australia.
There will not be any pressure, Gavaskar:
“There will not be any pressure on Ajinkya Rahane because he has done it in past. Both the times in the past he led the team, he has won. He led India against the Aussies at Dharmshala and India emerged as winners. Apart from that, he led against Afganistan and India won there too,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports show Game Plan.
“As far as his captaincy is concerned, I don’t think he will feel pressurized because he knows he is at the moment, only leading team for the three test games,” further added.
Ajinkya Rahane will focus more on his batting aspects. He had already begun that with the unbeaten ton in the first warm-up game against Australia A. It will be important for Rahane to score runs along with Cheteshwar Pujara to keep batting deep in absence of Virat Kohli.
“…I don’t think he will be thinking about his captaincy role right now. He must be focused to score big in the tour to grab the series.”
“Rahane would do his job perfectly, he knows the conditions as we saw his form in the first practice game. Both Pujara and Rahane will be keen on grinding the opposition as much as they can.”
India and Australia will begin the test tour on 17th December with the pink ball Day/Night game at Adelaide.
Indian Test Squad:
Virat Kohli(Captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane(Vice-Captain), Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha(Wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Mohd. Siraj, Rohit Sharma.
Australia Test Squad:
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