IND vs ENG | Ajinkya Rahane’s form not a concern, he will return to form soon, asserts Vikram Rathour
After being dismissed for a duck in the second innings of the fourth Test at Oval, Indian batting coach Vikram Rathour backed Ajinkya Rahane to get back to form in the ongoing series. He further added that the team is not thinking about changing its batting technique amid the ongoing Test series.
India had a good run in the second innings of the fourth Test at The Oval but Ajinkya Rahane’s patchy form has opened doors for debate again. The India vice-captain who was dismissed for a duck and could not make use of the good batting condition when the visitors were to build on their lead against the hosts. Rohit Sharma (127) scored his first overseas century, and the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara (61), Rishabh Pant (50), and Shardul Thakur (60) scored crucial half-centuries in the second innings to help India set a 368-run target for England. India passed the 400-run mark in an innings for the first time since 2019 against West Indies in Jamaica.
Ajinkya Rahane has been struggling with the willow since scoring his last Test century, against Australia at Melbourne in December 2020. The India vice-captain scored a fighting half-century in the second innings at Lord’s but he could not take his good form further in the ongoing Test series. However, Vikram Rathour is hopeful that Rahane will get back to his form and will play a major role in the Indian batting lineup.
“As I said earlier also, when you are playing cricket for a long time, you will have phases where you will not get runs. That is the time when we need to support the player as a team. As we saw with Pujara also, he has played a couple of important innings for us. We are hoping Ajinkya will get back into form and still play a major role in the Indian team's batting. I do not think we have arrived at that point where Rahane's form should become a concern,” Rathour further said, during the post-match virtual presser, reported HT.
Rathour stated that the team is not worried about its batting technique, and it would not be wise to change it amid an ongoing series.
“When you are playing such an important series like this one, playing in the conditions which are tough for batting and we are playing against such a disciplined bowling attack, which has been bowling so well, so as a batting unit, the technique is the last thing you should be thinking about. I do not think we are looking at technique right now, there is time to look for it, I do not think mid-series or mid-game is the time for that,” he added.
At stumps on Day 4, England were at 77/0, still needing 291 runs to win the fourth Test match at The Oval.