Reacting to India’s batting meltdown against South Africa, Sunil Gavaskar says the team missed Ajinkya Rahane at Centurion. Great batsman Sunil Gavaskar believes that Ajinkya Rahane’s expertise would have changed India’s total in the first Test at Centurion.
In response to India’s startling batting collapse against South Africa on the first day of the Boxing Day Test, Gavaskar said.
India’s collapse was set off by South African pacer Kagiso Rabada’s five-wicket haul, but KL Rahul held strong and scored an undefeated 70. Rain and bad visibility forced an early end to play, but India, at 208 for 8, stave off a tiring home attack.
In a broadcast, Gavaskar hinted that had Rahane been chosen for the Centurion Test, India’s score would have been different.
He cited an incident from the 2018–19 series in Johannesburg where Rahane, who was left out of the opening games, demonstrated his batting ability by making a strong 48 runs on a difficult wicket.
In the series finale, India won by a score of 63 runs thanks in large part to his contribution.
“The pitch from the Johannesburg Test five years ago has been a topic of discussion; I was present.” Yes, it wasn’t the smoothest pitch to bat on because the ball kept ascending.
And in that game, Ajinkya Rahane—who had not been selected for the first two Test matches—showed what the Indian squad had been missing, since earlier in the first couple of Test matches, India had not lost by significant margins.
In Star Sports commentary, Gavaskar stated, “So maybe somebody with Rahane’s experience overseas… because Rahane overseas has been such a fine, fine player and maybe if he had been there today the story could have been completely different.”
In early 2022, Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara were dropped together, indicating India’s departure from the senior batting lineup.
While Rahane was out of the spotlight for a year, Pujara made a strong comeback with an outstanding time playing cricket for County. When he returned in 2023, the Chennai Super Kings made an incredible IPL comeback.
Rahane returned to the Test team after Shreyas Iyer was injured, and he made a strong fifty in the WTC final even though the team lost. After being named vice-captain for the tour of the West Indies, he was once more benched for the series against South Africa.
