The Indian deputy skipper in Tests, Ajinkya Rahane has said that his role in the team is to take a backseat and be ready with solutions whenever captain Virat Kohli turns to him. Currently, Team India is training at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton ahead of the much-awaited World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand scheduled to start on June 18.

During a recent chat with ESPNCricinfo, explaining his role, Ajinkya Rahane said, “My role is to take the backseat. The captain already has a lot of thoughts in his head and as the vice-captain, my role is to keep my plans ready. If the need comes I reveal my plans but more often than not, I take the back seat. When Virat asks what needs to be done, I should be ready with the answers.”

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Rahane’s captaincy was lauded in India’s 2020/21 series win in Australia, and post the series win, there were a lot of discussions regarding teh chances of Rahane replacing Kohli as the regular captain in the longest format of the game. The 33-year-old, however, asserted in later interviews that Kohli will always be captain of the team.

Ajinkay Rahane also spoke about the differences between batting with Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara.

Elaborating the same, Ajinkya Rahane said, “Virat and I have had a lot of big partnerships. We like to play attacking cricket. If you look at our strike rate, it is really good in Test cricket. Cheteshwar is different, he likes to take his time. With him the communication is different, he bats at No.3, I bat at No.5 whereas Virat and I are numbers four and five.”

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He further added, “If we want to counter attack, then we decide to do it together. With Pujara we take more time to form a partnership. The similarity in batting with the two of them is that our communication is always good.”