After Ajinkya Rahane’s quiet series against the West Indies, Dinesh Karthik takes over. Ajinkya Rahane scored 11 runs in two Tests against the West Indies.
After the fifth day of the second Test at Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain, Trinidad, washed out, India won the Test series 1-0. There were many positives for India in the two games, including runs by Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal, as well as wickets by Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Siraj.
However, two prominent names from India, Shubman Gill and vice captain Ajinkya Rahane, had a quiet series, scoring 45 and 11 runs respectively in the two Tests. In response to Rahane’s failure, India wicketkeeper batter Dinesh Karthik stated that Rahane has been inconsistent throughout his career and hence lost his spot in the team in 2022.
“Clearly, Rahane had a very ordinary series. He had won the WTC final, thus he was chosen and named vice-captain for this series – a few shocks there. He had two chances with the bat and was found wanting on both occasions. The issue with Rahane throughout time has been that crucial word: consistency. That’s why he’d fallen out of favor in the side. “He’d know because he didn’t make the series count,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
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Speaking further about Gill, Karthik stated that the young batting star has established himself in ODIs and T20Is.
“We expect a lot from Shubman Gill, and he’s starting slowly in Tests, just like he did in T20s.” If you look at his recent Test cricket scores, there isn’t much to take away. He has had a significant impact in ODI and T20 cricket. Now that he has the skill and potential to make it big in Test cricket, all he needs is a bit more patience from our side. “When he plays well, he does look apart,” he continued.
Notably, both Gill and Rahane entered the series in excellent shape. The former finished the IPL 2023 season as the greatest run-scorer with 890 runs at an average of 59.33 in 17 innings, while Rahane was India’s finest performance in the World Test Championship final 2023, scoring 89 and 46 after a successful IPL season for eventual champions Chennai Super Kings. India’s next Test match is against South Africa in December, which might be decisive.
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