Ajinkya Rahane
Former Indian cricketer Akash Chopra believes that Indian batsman Ajinkya Rahane's sudden removal from the ODI side was like "removing a fly from milk". Aakash once again puts stats and numbers to justify his point, saying that Rahane was a decent No.4 option for India and that his omission from the limited-overs format was unfair.
Rahane averaged 35.26 in his ODI career from the 90 matches he played scoring 2962 runs. At No.4, he averaged 36.65 in 27 matches. Rahane was backed by Indian skipper Virat Kohli to solve India's No.4 problem during their South Africa tour in 2018. But was dropped right after the series, and did not make another appearance.
“His numbers at No. 4 were good. And at number 4, if you are giving good performances, consistently playing well and strike rate is also around 94, then why are you not giving him more chances? He was dropped all of a sudden, just like you remove a fly from milk. Why was something like that done? I feel he was hard done by,” Chopra said while answering viewers’ questions on his YouTube channel.
“If India had become like England, that they will score 350 in every match, that is the only way they will play, whether it goes their way of not. We didn’t do like that. We still play cricket in the traditional orthodox way. We still build the innings and pick a team that can score around 325, so Ajinkya Rahane would have fitted in that.”
Besides, Rahane also has tremendous numbers as an opener, scoring three centuries in 54 matches with 1937 runs.
“In my opinion it was slightly unfair to him because when he was dropped from the ODI team he was absolutely fine. So when you are not playing someone after he has done well, you are not doing the right thing. In fact, when he played in South Africa, there also he did well. I remember that, it was in 2018. He should get an opportunity again,” Chopra said
