Indian player Ajinkya Rahane has returned to the national team after scoring a fifty in his debut match for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL. He is likely to be included in the Indian squad for the ICC World Test Championship finals in June.
According to reports, Indian coach Rahul Dravid will visit the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru on Tuesday to discuss the WTC final. India will face Australia in the final of the World Championship on June 7 in England. India has selected a 15-member squad under Rohit Sharma for the World Cup.
The biggest worry for the Indian team ahead of the final is the injury of middle order batsman Shreyas Iyer. He is not playing for Kolkata Knight Riders in the ongoing IPL due to injury. It is doubtful that Shreyas will play in the World Test Championship as well. If he is out, the question for India is who will be at number five.
T20 specialist Suryakumar Yadav is the player being considered by India to replace Shreyas Iyer. But he played only one Test. He also flopped in batting. Moreover, Surya is going through a miserable form in ODIs as well. Shreyas was tested by India in the last ODI series against Australia in his absence. But in all three matches, Surya recorded a shameful record for Golden Deck. He appeared for Mumbai Indians in the IPL and did not click in the batting in both the matches.
Earlier, Ajinkya Rahane was an integral part of India in the Test format. He also held the role of vice-captain when Virat Kohli was leading the team. Rahane has shown many match-winning performances at number five at home and abroad. But his place in the team was called into question as he was consistently bowled out for low scores. Rahane was removed from the vice-captaincy and was soon out of the team.
In domestic cricket, he performed well for Mumbai in the last Ranji Trophy. He scored 634 runs at an average of 62.16 from 11 matches. This included every double century and century. After that, Rahane again dazzled with 61 off 27 balls for Chennai Super Kings against Mumbai Indians in the IPL. This is the reason why the player was considered for the Test Championship final.
Ajinkya Rahane, who has a lot of experience and has the ability to beat England’s fast pitch, is definitely expected to play in the World Test Championship final. Many people have supported the actor on social media.
A user’s response was that Ajinkya Rahane is definitely needed as Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant are not playing for India in the final. Ajinkya Rahane should definitely be played at number five in Tests. India should not play the likes of Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav. A user tweeted that only experienced batters will benefit.