Former India and Karnataka player Dodda Ganesh has come down heavy on stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane for his awful batting performance in the 1st India vs New Test, saying that “enough is enough”.
Dodda Ganesh, a Karnataka legend, took to Twitter to express his disappointment and chose not to hold his words back when he found out that head coach Rahul Dravid has backed him to come good.
“Even a tail ender can get a 50 once in 15-20 innings. Enough is enough,” tweeted Ganesh.
Dravid, at the press conference after Day 5, said: “Rahane is a quality player, he has done well in past, it’s just a matter of time, he would turn things around and he knows that as well. So don’t get worried, of course, you would like more runs from him”.
Support for Rahane, however, has been scarce as he has come under heavy scrutiny from various experts in the cricketing fraternity for his repeated failures in Test cricket of late. The Kanpur Test was no different as the right-hander could only manage scores of 35 and 4 in the two innings. Many even believed that he got to feature in the team because of his captaincy role in Virat Kohli’s absence.
Meanwhile, cricket-turned-broadcaster Deep Dasgupta remarked that out-of-form Rahane should be rested for the next game, saying:
“The main choice is that Rahane is rested, I know he was captain last match, but still. It would be a straight swap at No.5. Another case is if Saha does not play, can Bharat open and keep wickets. In that case, you can play all of Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, and Iyer. But, in that case, one of the openers will have to make way. That is kind of an out-of-the-box option.”
