Ajinkya Rahane was unfairly dismissed from India’s ODI setup, believes Aakash Chopra

Rahane, before earning his first Test cap in 2013, made his India debut in 2011 in ODIs. However, over the years Rahane has been seen as a red-ball specialist and even though he played a few handy knocks in the 2015 World Cup as the No. 4. But it was his strike rate in middle-overs that became a problem in the 50-over format. Ahead of the 2019 World Cup in England, India were still looking for a solid No. 4 batsman and amidst Ambati Rayudu and Vijay Shankar’s name, Rahane’s name wasn’t taken into account as the veteran batsman had last played an ODI in 2018. While Rahane still remained a regular in the Test line-up, also a deputy to Virat Kohli, he was almost permanently omitted from the ODI setup.

According to former India cricketer Aakash Chopra, Rahane’s ODI sacking was unfair given his consistent performances as the No. 4 batsman in the side. Chopra recalled that Rahane had performed well in his last ODI tour in South Africa. 

"His numbers at No. 4 were good. And at number 4, if you are giving good performances, consistently playing well and strike rate is also around 94, then why are you not giving him more chances? He was dropped all of a sudden, just like you remove a fly from milk. Why was something like that done? I feel he was hard done," Chopra told on his official YouTube channel.

"If India had become like England, that they will score 350 in every match, that is the only way they will play, whether it goes their way of not. We didn’t do like that. We still play cricket in the traditional orthodox way. We still build the innings and pick a team that can score around 325, so Ajinkya Rahane would have fitted in that. So, in my opinion, it was slightly unfair to him because when he was dropped from the ODI team he was absolutely fine. So when you are not playing someone after he has done well, you are not doing the right thing. In fact when he played in South Africa, there also he did well. I remember that it was in 2018. He should get an opportunity again,” he added. 

After India’s 2019 World Cup semifinal exit, the team settled for a strong middle-order comprising the likes of Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, and Hardik Pandya.