4th Test: Ajinkya Rahane should not have been demoted to No.6, says Sunil Gavaskar

Team India cricketer Ajinkya Rahane was demoted to No.6 during the ongoing Oval Test against England, with Ravindra Jadeja promoted up the order. This decision by the team management has been criticised by legendary batsman Sunil Gavaskar. Rahane has scored just 109 runs in four Tests of the ongoing five-match series against England. The batsman was dismissed for a duck in the second innings of the fourth Test at Oval. This has emerged as an area of concern with the rest of the batsmen scoring runs freely.

Gavaskar termed Rahane’s attempt to play across the line towards square leg which resulted in his LBW dismissal, against Chris Woakes in the second innings of the Oval encounter as a bad move.

“That was a bad shot for a man out of form to be playing across the line towards square leg. There is no way the ball was going to meet the ball. His confidence is shot. He was not confident before because he hadn’t scored runs apart from that 60 at Lord’s. At Leeds, he hadn’t got runs,” said the legendary Indian cricketer on The Sony Sports Network.

Gavaskar further believes that the team management is steadily losing confidence in Rahane’s prowess.

“In the first innings, I had generally thought that Ravindra Jadeja was promoted over him because perhaps Rahane was on a toilet break. But now in the second innings as well, when Jadeja went ahead of him and it hasn’t worked – what it’s done to the psychology of a player is that it says ‘look, we are not showing any confidence in you’. The confidence has to be shown. He is not scoring runs but he should be told that at No. 5, you are our batsman’ not at 6. And that is what happened. No surprises, that he got out for 0,” stated the legendary Indian cricketer.

“It’s time to give Rahane a break”

Former Indian cricketer VVS Laxman believes that it is time for Team India to give Rahane a break. Since his match-winning hundred in the Melbourne Test against Australia last year, the batsman has averaged less than 20 in 11 Tests. Rahane’s lack of form has certainly hurt the Indian team, who have not enjoyed the necessary depth in the middle order.

“It’s time to give Rahane a break. I am not sure of what the future holds for him. He is a quality player and I always believe that quality players come back into the team. But, the kind of form and confidence he has shown and the body language when he was out there in the middle Not once during his eight-ball innings did Ajinkya Rahane look convincing,” said Laxman in an interaction with ESPNCricinfo as quoted by India Today.

“Promoting Jadeja in the second innings, the message is very clear. At the moment, the team management feels that Ajinkya Rahane is not in great rhythm, he is out of touch and low on confidence,” added Laxman.

“You don’t want to go into a Test match with that kind of a mindset, especially in case of a senior batsman. I just feel, come the Old Trafford Test match, there may be a change and Vihari may get a chance ahead of Ajinkya Rahane,” he concluded.