The Indian Team is one of the most feared teams in Test cricket right now. They boast of one of the best bowling units and their batting lineup is star studded with big names as well. However, the performance of the batting unit hasn’t been quite up to the mark when it comes to overseas tours and that is mainly because of the fragility of the middle-order.
During the recently concluded tour of England, the middle-order failed once again even though the openers, KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, were highly successful. The middle-order consists of three big names in the likes of Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. While Kohli and Pujara seemed like getting back to their best in the last few matches, the same cannot be said about Rahane.
Rahane has gone past the 50-run mark only twice in the last 10 Tests. He scored a memorable century in India’s victory at Melbourne during the Australia tour. However, he has been struggling with form since then.
Former India batsman Virender Sehwag feels that even though Rahane hasn’t been in good form, he deserves one last chance at home to regain his confidence and form.
“I feel when your overseas tour goes bad, you should get a chance in India as well because this comes once in four years but you will play a series in India every year. If the series goes bad in India, then I will understand that the form which was bad overseas is there here as well, then he deserves it now,” Sehwag had said on the Sony Sports Network.
“I have seen many great players who have not done anything for 8 or 9 Tests, not even a fifty and they were still persisted with, and the result was that they performed going ahead and scored 1200-1500 runs in a year in Test cricket.”
India will be hosting New Zealand in a two-match Test series at home later this year in November-December. Sehwag is of the opinion that if Rahane doesn’t perform even in that series, then it might be the time to look for better options.
“Everyone goes through a bad phase. The question is how you behave with your player in a bad phase, whether you back him or leave him. According to me, Ajinkya Rahane should get a chance when the next series happens in India. If he doesn’t perform there, you can say – thank you very much for your contribution,” the former India opener pointed out.
