West Indies vs India: Selectors have to figure out their expectation from Ajinkya Rahane, says Deep Dasgupta

By India Today Sports Desk: Deep Dasgupta has said that the selectors need to decide on their expectations for Ajinkya Rahane after his failure with the bat on day one of the second Test against West Indies.

Rahane had made a strong return to the Indian team during the WTC final against Australia and was made the vice-captain for the West Indies series, which raised a few eyebrows.

Things haven’t turned out well for the 34-year-old batter during the series.

West Indies vs India 2nd Test, day one: Report

During the first Test match against West Indies, Rahane, batting at No. 5, could only manage to score 11 runs in the first innings. In the second Test, he struggled once again, adding only 8 runs to his name on Thursday. These performances were disappointing, especially considering Rahane’s role as vice-captain and his previous impressive performance in the World Test Championship final against Australia.

Dasgupta, while talking to Cricinfo, said that the selectors needed to identify their expectations from Rahane. The former wicketkeeper said he was surprised by the move to make Rahane the vice-captain for the series.

Dasgupta pointed out that after one good knock, Rahane had a tendency to underperform in the next few innings. The former cricketer said that the selectors may as well start looking for new options as he expects more from Rahane as a middle-order batter.

“Now, the challenge for the selectors are, uh he played a really good knock WTC finals. He looked really compact. But then that’s followed by three, rather three innings, right?”

“Yeah, three innings of not really much substance. And then what? I mean, the selectors have to figure out what do they want from Ajinkya Rahane? What are their expectations of Ajinkya Rahane.”

“If it’s gonna be one inning out of five, if that’s the kind of ratio, should they still persist with them or they start, it’s about time to start looking at, uh, maybe someone else.”

“So I, I think it’s very, very important for, uh, the selectors to figure out their expectations. And and it’s quite surprising that, uh, he’s been made the vice captain of this series as well, which I thought was quite surprising after making a comeback in the WTC finals.”

“But for me, I think, if it’s gonna be like that, a 70-80 then you know, three test matches of single digit or whatever or low scores is that what you expect from somebody as senior as him?”

“Somebody who’s played so much cricket or more. He looks really good in one innings, one test match and then three innings or rather, 3-4 test matches. He does not show up.”

“So I, I think you know, as far as I’m concerned, if that’s how it’s going to be, you might as well start looking at other options. Because for someone like Ajinkya Rahane, I would be expecting a lot more from him.”

“And now that he’s made the vice-captain, I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know what’s the thought process behind it. And, and what’s the thought process in the long-term, as far as that middle order or Ajinkya is concerned,” said Rahane.