Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara make most of training session ahead of series against SA

Indian batters Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara participated in a practice session on Friday ahead of the upcoming series against South Africa. Rahane and Pujara both took to social media to share footage of themselves working hard in preparation for the bilateral series. Due to injury concerns, Rahane was recently dropped as Team India's vice-captain in Tests. In the long format, Rohit Sharma has been designated as Virat Kohli's deputy. Pujara, on the other hand, is in danger of being dropped since his batting form has dipped significantly in recent months.  

Rahane and Pujara's dipping form

Rahane has played 12 Test matches for India in 2021 and averages less than 20, with no century to his name in the past year. Rahane's last Test century came against Australia in the Boxing Day Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where the Indian batter was made the stand-in captain in the absence of Kohli. In the first Test match against New Zealand in Kanpur, Rahane scored 35 and 4 runs respectively in two innings, a below-par performance from a player of his calibre.

Meanwhile, Pujara has played 13 Test matches for India in the 2021 season. Pujara's last century came on the way back in January 2019 against Australia. After his fantastic innings at SCG, Pujara had come close to scoring one more century in August this year while playing an away Test against England at Leeds but he fell short at 91. Pujara scored 26 and 22 runs respectively in the first Test against New Zealand. He was dismissed for a duck in the first innings of the second match in Mumbai and scored 47 runs in the second innings of the same match.  

There have been questions about Rahane and Pujara declining form, as well as bringing in young players like Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill into the squad. Suryakumar Yadav is another candidate to take over in the middle for either Pujara or Rahane. The senior cricketers, on the other hand, have performed admirably in foreign conditions and will be eager to demonstrate their worth in South Africa, where they will play a three-match Test series.

(Image: AjinkyaRahane/CheteshwarPujara/Twitter)