Veteran batter Ajinkya Rahane made a commendable comeback in Test Cricket with a half-century against Australia in the World Test Championship (WTC) final. While the other big guns faltered, he scored 89 and 46 in both innings and ended the game as the highest scorer for India. His heroics at The Oval not only cemented his place in the team but also gave him back the post of the vice-captain in the longest format of the game. The Mumbai batter has been named as Rohit Sharma’s deputy for the 2-match Test series against the West Indies, starting July 12 in Dominica.
Rahane had a superb Ranji Trophy season earlier this year. While leading Mumbai, he scored 634 runs in 11 innings, including a couple of hundreds and a fifty, with the highest score of 204. Later, he announced his Chennai Super Kings debut with a blistering 19-ball fifty and played a crucial role in the franchise’s fifth title win.
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His consistent run helped him make his way back into the Indian dressing room after 18 months but his sudden elevation as Rohit Sharma’s deputy has been questioned by a host of former cricketers. The latest individual to join the bandwagon is former India captain and ex-BCCI president Sourav Ganguly.
In a conversation with PTI, Ganguly found it extremely baffling that Ajinkya Rahane has been handed Test vice-captaincy after spending nearly 18 months on the sidelines. While he didn’t term Rahane’s ascendancy as a step backwards, he didn’t term it as a pragmatic decision.
“I won’t say it is a step backwards. You have been out for 18 months, then you play a Test and you become a vice-captain. I don’t understand the thought process behind it. There is Ravindra Jadeja, who has been there for a long time and is a certainty in Test matches, he is a candidate. But to just come back and straightway becomes vice-captain after 18 months, I don’t understand,” Ganguly was quoted as saying by PTI.
“My only thing is that selection shouldn’t be hot and cold. There has to be continuity and consistency in selection,” he added.
The Indian selectors have hit the transition button by excluding a batter of Chetshwar Pujara’ stature and Ganguly wants that communication channel should be clear with a player, who has featured in more than 100 Tests for India.
“Selectors should have a clear idea about him (Pujara). Do they need him to play Test cricket anymore or do they want to continue with youngsters and communicate it to him? Somebody like Pujara can’t be dropped, then picked, dropped again and then picked. Same with Ajinkya Rahane also,” Ganguly further said.
(With PTI Inputs)
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