Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar lashed out at middle-order batsman Ajinkya Rahane after strings of underwhelming performances in the ongoing Test series against England. Rahane has managed to score just 112 runs in 6 innings so far.
During the first innings of the ongoing fourth Test, Rahane started well and played a couple of good strokes to put pressure on the opposition bowlers. However, veteran James Anderson dismissed him on 27 to end his stay in the middle.
Manjrekar said Rahane seems extremely insecure and short of confidence while batting.
“Coming to Ajinkya Rahane’s wicket, every time I see him bat these days, I don’t get that comfort…. Ajinkya Rahane doesn’t give you that security that the team needs or his fans would want from him. That’s something that has been wrong with his batting for a long time now,” Manjrekar told ESPNCricinfo in a video interview.
“Every time I see Ajinkya Rahane bat these days, I feel a batsman short of confidence, a batsman who seems extremely insecure,” he added.
Manjrekar further said that when Rahane played with an aggressive approach all of his shots don’t look convincing as it doesn’t give much confidence to the batsmen in the dressing room.
Rahane stood out with his (aggressive) approach. Rahane has batted in this way in the last 3-4 years. There have been times when he plays all these shots. But even when he plays in this fashion not all the shots that we saw were convincing. So yes, he has scored freely but wasn’t giving too much confidence to the batsmen who were watching from the dressing room,” Manjrekar said.
Meanwhile, on day 2 India managed to take an 89-run lead over England as Rishabh Pant slammed an astonishing century. Washington Sundar (60) and Axar Patel (11) will resume the proceedings of India’s innings on Day 3 from 294-7.
