Mumbai : Joining the debate over Ajinkya Rahane’s batting order in Tests, former India captain Rahul Dravid said he prefers his one-time Rajasthan Royals teammate to bat at no. 5 and not one-down, a position he was sent in the last two Tests in Sri Lanka recently.
“He’s good at no. 5, or even 4, because of his ability to play with the tail-enders, the range of shots he possesses and for the opportunity he would get to face the second new ball too,” a visibly reluctant Dravid told former Test opener Aakash Chopra at the launch of the latter’s book “The Insider”.
It was interesting to note that Rahane was sitting by his side on the dais when Chopra put the question to the 42- year-old cricket legend, “Ajinkya at no. 3 or 5, what do you want?”
The debate has arisen as Rahane, who has been the most consistent of all Indian middle order batsmen on the overseas tours to South Africa, New Zealand, England and South Africa – at no. 5 – was asked to bat at no. 3 in the second and third Tests against Lanka, both played at Colombo and won by India for a 2-1 series win, after he had batted at no. 5 in the lost first Test at Galle.
While scoring a century for a winning cause at the P Sara Oval in the second Test, Rahane failed to reach double figures in the other three innings in which he batted at no. 3.
His Mumbai teammate Rohit Sharma, who flopped at no. 3, made two half centuries (79 and 50) and also got good starts in the other two innings in which he was demoted to no. 5 – the slot occupied by Rahane.
Dravid said that at times, like it happened during the Test series in Sri Lanka, Rahane would have to come up the order and bat at no. 3 to help the team’s cause. “At times for the sake of the team he may have to bat at no. 3, as it happened in Lanka,” Dravid said.
“The only similarities between us, that I see is that both of us had to wait for 4-5 years and score a lot of runs at plus 60 average in domestic cricket before breaking into the Indian team. He has many more shots than me. Ajinkya, perhaps, has been our best batsman over the last few series overseas. He has hit so many hundreds. He has great potential.”
Dravid singled out the catching of the Virat Kohli-led squad in Lanka as “exceptional”. “Some of the catches we saw in the series were exceptional. For example, the catch by Rahane to dismiss Kumar Sangakkara in the first innings of the first Test).”
He said a very interesting time awaits Indian cricket.
“India has a lot of options once the injured Dhawan and Vijay return. There is Rahane, there is Rahul, Virat himself. Pujara was exceptional. It’s an interesting time for Indian cricket.”
Dravid felt that in modern-day Test cricket, where emphasis is on attacking batting, the positives of rotating the strike by taking singles – with the in-out field employed by most captains – was equally important.
“Players need to react better than what they are doing now against in-out fields,” he explained. —PTI
