India’s vice captain Aijnkya Rajane has dismissed any concerns over his personal form ahead of the second Test in Chennai. Rahane managed scores of 1 and 0 in India’s loss but was assertive about his performances before that.
“See we’re playing at home after two years. we played last home series against South Africa, and if you take that record out you’ll find something over there,” said Rahane who scored ton in Ranchi against South Africa and followed it with two fifties against Bangladesh, in 2019. In 14 innings since, he’s passed fifty only once, which also turned out to be an epic hundred in Melbourne last year.
“It’s all about the team, not about any individual. My focus is completely on how can I contribute for my team. If you take out last 10-15 Test matches, about my individual performance, you’ll see some runs over there. So I don’t need to worry about what is happening and what happened in the first Test match, it’s all about what team wants from me in this Test match and I’m going to contribute. And I’m very much confident about it,” he asserted.
Rahane also foresaw a big change in the way the pitch at Chepauk will play out for the second Test. The first Test saw the pitch offer close to nothing for the bowlers on the first couple of days, which is unlikely to be the case this time around according to Rahane.
“Looks yeah completely different. I’m sure it will turn from day number one,” he said and added, “Again as I said before the first Test match, we’ll have to wait and see how it plays in the first session and take it from there. Yeah, we have to forget what happened in the first Test match and focus on this and play good cricket. We know these conditions really well, and we have to put our best foot forward tomorrow”
While Rahane also admitted that England had “dominated” the first Test, he did not feel the need to pick cues from what they were doing – which include a preference for the sweep shot (by Root) and a rotational policy to keep the players fresh.
“Depends on what they bowl and what lines and lengths they bowl and accordingly we play those shots. See England came up with some plans – sweep and reverse sweep – but it’s not necessary that we are going to play similar shots. It’s all about what they bowl and how we attack their lines and lengths,” said Rahane.
“They’ve been doing that (rotation policy), they did that in Sri Lanka. And that’s their strategy. Yes, considering what is happening at the moment, everyone is in the bubble, everyone is in the quarantine. So it’s difficult for the players to actually have that mental strength, and it’s their strategy and we respect that. But for us, each and every member or whoever they play are really quality and can do well for the team. We are not thinking of any individual, we are thinking as a team. We want to do well as a team and focus on our strengths other than what others are doing.”
