"If he doesn't perform in the next home series, you can say - thank you so much for your contribution"- Virender Sehwag on struggling Ajinkya Rahane
Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag opined that despite Ajinkya Rahane not being in the best of his form, he deserves another opportunity. This, especially for a test series played at home.
Team India's Test vice-captain has looked bleak in recent times and has endured an extremely lean patch in Test cricket as of late. The 33-year old Rahane has averaged only 19.86 since his last ton against Australia in Melbourne. Speaking to Sony Sports Network, Sehwag said:
"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 recent Test series between England and India saw a collapse in the Indian middle-order barring a few instances. In a series where India's biggest positives were their openers, KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, the Big 3 in the middle-order were inconsistent.
While Pujara and Kohli were steadily starting to get some important runs during the latter half of the series, Rahane looked ordinary throughout. Once India's best asset at overseas tours was grappling with poor form. Sehwag continued saying:
"I feel when your overseas tour goes bad, you should get a chance in India as well because this comes once every four years but, you will play a series in India every year. If the series goes badly in India, then I will understand that the form which was bad overseas is there as well, then he deserves it now,"
"I have seen many great players who have not done anything for 8 or 9 Tests, not even a fifty, and they persisted with, and the result was that they performed going ahead and scored 1200-1500 runs in a year in Test cricket."
After the two mega-events in white-ball cricket, IPL 2021 and the T20 World Cup 2021, India will host New Zealand for a Two-Test match series.