Former Indian opener, Aakash Chopra has been emerging as one of the expert cricket analysts in recent times. He has expressed his dissatisfaction over the Indian deputy skipper in Tests, Ajinkya Rahane being ignored from the ODI squad for quite some time now. Ajinkya played his last ODI match for India in February 2018 and in the current scenarios, there are no chances of him making a comeback anytime soon.
Before getting dropped, Rahane was batting at the number 4 position in ODIs despite the fact that he has the second-best average at the 4th position in ODI format. From his 25 matches at the position, Rahane has scored 843 runs at an average of 36.65. Also, since the start of 2015, he has scored runs at an average of 44.85 at the position with a strike-rate of almost 90.
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Talking about the same on his Youtube channel, Aakash Chopra said, “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.”
Explaining the batting style of Rahane, Chopra reckons that it will be in sync with the team’s batting style. Chopra opined that India unlike England believes in playing orthodox cricket in ODIs and going by that standard Ajinkya Rahane was a perfect fit.
Explaining the same further, Chopra said, “If India had become like England, that they will score 350 in every match, that is the only way they will play. We still build the innings and pick a team that can score around 325, so Ajinkya Rahane would have fitted in that. So, in my opinion, it was slightly unfair to him because when he was dropped from the ODI team he was absolutely fine.”
He further added, “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.”
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A comeback Rahane in the ODI squad both as an opener and as the number 4 as the slots look occupied. Recently, Shreyas Iyer confidently stated that the debate over the number 4 spot should be shunned as he has made the slot his own.
Despite that, Ajinkya Rahane in his recent interviews has revealed that he hasn’t given up on the hope of making an ODI comeback and was always working hard for it.
