Former Indian cricketer Ashish Nehra is concerned with the lean patch that Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane are going through. Nehra says despite scoring a match-winning hundred in Melbourne, the confidence in Rahane’s batting is missing.
Indian middle-order comprising Virat Kohli, Pujara and Rahane are having silent few months in Test cricket. While Kohli has scored few 40’s and 50’s, Rahane and Pujara and looking dubious while batting in the middle.
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Nehra feels the poor form of the experienced duo is a big concern for Team India.
“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.
Former fast-bowler further mentioned how Pujara is bothered by the balls outside the off-stump. On the other hand, Rahane’s confidence is very low despite scoring an authoritative century at the MCG.
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“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,” Nehra added.
“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.”
Pujara scored 4 and 12* in the first Test at Trent Bridge while got out for 9 in the first innings of Lord’s. Rahane scored 5 runs in Nottingham before running himself out and he got out to his overnight score of 1 at Lord’s.
India managed to put 364 runs on the board in the first innings of the Lord’s Test, where openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul are the chief contributors.
