Ajinkya Rahane
India's Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara continued to struggle for runs as the experienced batting pair fell cheaply to paceman James Anderson on the second day of Lord's Test against England. Pujara, known for his defensive batting forte, has struggled to get going in the traditional format, managing to score at just 27.78 from nine Tests this year.
Vice-captain Rahane has also looked out of sorts against the red ball, averaging 19.21 from nine Tests this year. Both Pujara and Rahane have faltered in the ongoing Test series too. While Rahane has managed to score 5 and 1 in two innings, Pujara has recorded scores of 4, 12*, and 9.
Former India pacer Ashish Nehra feels the recent form of the experienced batting duo is a worrying sign for the team management.
"It’s not like it’s been two or three matches. See, Virat Kohli has still hit a few half-centuries, getting into the 40s, but Pujara and Rahane are the real worrying signs, especially the manner in which they are getting out. They are senior players so it’s obvious that they know their game well. But in this case, it all comes down to temperament and how they come out of it," Nehra said on the Sony Sports Network.
Rahane and Pujara were dismissed in a similar fashion on Friday as Anderson coaxed the two into fishing outside off-stump. Nehra feels Rahane's iconic ton at the MCG last year hasn't helped him gain any confidence.
"Against Pujara, the bowlers have come up with this plan that since he does not score too many runs, we will bowl wicket-to-wicket line to him to get him either bowled or LBW. In this innings, Anderson bowled the sixth-seventh stump line to him to get him out caught in the slips.
“With Rahane, it’s that fourth and fifth stump line that he is getting out to. If you look at Australia, he scored a century at Melbourne, but given how he’s performed before and after that hundred, it doesn’t seem as if he gained any confidence from that innings," he concluded.
After a mediocre middle-order showing, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja resurrected India's innings before the former fell when he nicked an attempted cut to wicketkeeper Jos Buttler. With Jadeja at the crease, India were hoping they would get close to 40. The Indian tail, however, perished in no time and Jadeja was then caught at mid-on, ending India's innings on 364.
