Simon Doull is unhappy with Rahane’s below-par average performance
Former New Zealand cricketer Simon Doull has some views to share over Indian vice-captain in Tests Ajinkya Rahane. He believes that Rahane’s time has passed and he is no sooner seen to be into the form again. His teammates like Shreyas Iyer and Mayank Agarwal are to be seen as the emerging batsmen in the Indian cricket squad.
Earlier before there were some talks in the town regarding Rahane’s place and position in the 11-men squad, but during the recent India Vs. New Zealand Test series some of the senior players and squad’s captain Virat Kohli was given rest. Rahane was the squad’s skipper where he only scored 35* and 4* against NZ.
Doull feels that Rahane should be dropped ahead of their South Africa tour. Doull said:
“It’s a bit like airplane loyalty card points, at some point, it’s going to run out. I know Rahane is a champion human being, I know he is a huge part of this setup and part of the leadership group. But players with far better numbers over 29 innings have been dropped from this team.
He further added:
“I know he has got a good record overseas but his time seems to have passed.”
It was announced by BCCI that ahead of the final Test match in Mumbai Rahane was ruled out of the squad due to a hamstring injury. Simon added:
“He is getting out similarly and I just don’t know if he is as good a player as he was three or four years ago. When the young guys are coming along and kicking the door down, like they are doing at the moment, they deserve an opportunity.”
Simon Doull strongly feels that the debut Test Century maker Shreyas Iyer should have opted ahead of the South Africa tour. Doull made his statement clear by adding support to his views:
“If (Rahane) was averaging 34 or 35 in the last 29 innings with a couple of centuries, I would have said keep him in the squad. But when you are averaging 24 with one century in 29 innings, I just don’t think that’s good enough.
Simon concluded by saying:
“From the standards that India set, these numbers are well and truly below par and the time has come to bring in a young player. I know it’s a tough introduction, but I think I will run with Shreyas Iyer.”
According to reports Iyer is likely to replace Rahane in the South Africa tour. As Iyer has left no chance to leave his imprint over the hearts of everyone, he was seen in both the Tests against the Kiwis performing brilliantly.
Scoring a century and fifty in Kanpur the 27-year old has made 202 runs with an average of 50.50 and has become the 2nd highest run-scorer in the series.
India has defeated the Kiwis with an amazing knock of 372* runs. The Kiwis got all out at 167*.
India is now ready to tour South Africa from next week to play 3 Tests and 3 ODIs, starting on December 26th.
