Virender Sehwag feels Ajinkya Rahane should get chance in Test Series against New Zealand

Team India Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane form with the bat in the recent England vs India five-match Test series has come under severe criticism. The middle-order batsman could only muster 109 runs from the seven innings during England vs India Test series, due to which his place in the team has also being questioned. While there have been calls about Ajinkya Rahane to dropped from the team, former India cricketer Virender Sehwag thinks the other way around.

Despite not scoring big runs with the bat in the England vs India series, Virender Sehwag feels that Ajinkya Rahane should be given another opportunity to prove himself. Speaking on Sony Sports Network, the ex-India opener said, “I feel when your overseas tour goes bad, you should get a chance in India as well because this comes once in four years but you will play a series in India every year. If the series goes bad in India, then I will understand that the form which was bad overseas is there here as well, then he deserves it now.” 

Sehwag also spoke about how the players going through poor patches have succeeded after receiving backing. He added, “I have seen many great players who have not done anything for 8 or 9 Tests, not even a fifty and they still were persisted with, and the result was that they performed going ahead and scored 1200-1500 runs in a year in Test cricket."

Virender Sehwag backs Ajinkya Rahane to play NZ series  

The former opening batsman, while backing Rahane for the New Zealand series in India later this year, pointed out that he can be dropped from the side if he does not perform in that series. “Everyone goes through a bad phase. The question is how you behave with your player in a bad phase, whether you back him or leave him. According to me, Ajinkya Rahane should get a chance when the next series happens in India. If he doesn’t perform there, you can say – thank you very much for your contribution."

Recently, former Indian captain, Sunil Gavaskar said that he believed that demoting Ajinkya Rahane to No 6 would have had a massive impact on his confidence in the England vs India Test Series. 

Image: AP/ PTI