“Ajinkya rahane very fortunate for being part of the Indian team” – Gautam Gambhir ahead of IND vs NZ 2021 Test series

Gautam Gambhir Called Ajinkya rahane very fortunate for being part of the Indian team for the upcoming series against New Zealand.  

Gautam Gambhir also accepted that Ajinkya Rahane has been in poor form lately but he has been inducted into the team because he has to lead the Indian team in the absence of Virat Kohli. 

Virat Kohli has been given the rest from the first test against New Zealand. Ajinkya Rahane has been given the responsibility to lead the team in his absence. India is expected to play two tests against Blackcaps starting from Thursday. Earlier, there were speculations going around that Rohit Sharma will lead the team, however, Rohit Sharma has also asked for a break from the series. 

Gautam Gambhir’s comments came when he was on the show on the star sports called “Game Plan” where he was asked to pick up playing 11 for the first test. He chose Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul as the openers and slotted Shubam Gill in at No. 4.

“I am going to open with Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul because he opened in England and then probably Shubman Gill will bat at No. 4.”

“That’s what I would want to see and plus Rahane is pretty fortunate that he’s still part of this side because he’s leading… But again he’s got another opportunity now, hopefully, he can make that count,” Gambhir said.

The Middle-order batter, despite being outside of the squad for the last two series, was dropped from the test team and added to the squad for an India ‘A’ tour of South Africa, without any explanation from the BCCI and selectors. 

Gambhir expressed his surprise at the same, saying he would have been better off playing international cricket than for the India ‘A’  team. The former Kolkata Knight Rider captain even said he would have sent Shubham Gill ahead of Vihari to South Africa. 

Gautam Gambhir concluded:

“I was absolutely surprised that they didn’t include Hanuma Vihari who was in the squad for England. What better practice than playing international cricket rather than sending him on an India ‘A’ tour. He’s probably going to be your replacement for Rahane or someone in the middle-order because he’s been there for such a long time.

“Just because he’s not there in the squad, you’ll push Shubman Gill to the middle-order… I would rather have Shubman Gill going to South Africa for India ‘A’ tour because then Hanuma Vihari would have played these two matches and then gone to South Africa. It would have been much better.”