Dravid wants Rahane back at number five

Mumbai, September 4

Joining the debate over Ajinkya Rahane’s batting order in Tests, former India captain Rahul Dravid said he prefers Rahane to bat at No. 5, not one-down, a position where he was asked to bat in the last two Tests in Sri Lanka.

“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 he would get to face the second new ball too,” Dravid said during the launch of Aakash Chopra’s book, The Insider.

The debate has arisen as Rahane, who has been the most consistent of all Indian middle-order batsmen on overseas tours at No. 5, was asked to bat at No. 3 in the second and third Tests against Sri Lanka. While he scored a second-innings century in a winning cause in the second Test, Rahane failed to reach double figures in the other three innings he had at No. 3. Rohit Sharma, who flopped at No. 3 in the series opener, made two half-centuries (79 and 50), besides getting good starts in the other two innings at No. 5 — the slot previously occupied by Rahane.

Even Sunil Gavaskar was scathing in his views about the change in the batting order. during the second Test. However, Dravid said that at times, like it happened during the just-concluded series in Sri Lanka, Rahane would have to come up the order and bat at No. 3. “At times for the sake of the team, he may have to bat at No. 3 as it happened in Lanka,” said India’s most successful No. 3 Test batsman. The 164-Test veteran was full of praise for Rahane for how he scored tons of runs in domestic cricket to force his way into the Indian team and then how he nailed the spot with his consistent batting.

“The only similarity I see between us is that both of us had to wait for 4-5 years and score a lot of runs at 60-plus average in domestic cricket before breaking into the Indian team. He has more shots than I had. Ajinkya, perhaps, has been our best batsman over the last few series overseas. He has hit so many hundreds. He has great potential,” said Dravid.

He said with the competition for batting spots intensifying in the team, following the match-winning century (145) by comeback man Cheteshwar Pujara, a very interesting time is in the offing for Indian cricket.

Indian batsmen not bad against spin: Rahane

Ajinkya Rahane said the current batsmen are not bad players of spin. “The current Indian batsmen are not bad against spin. But the credit goes to Sri Lankan spinners for bowling well. Our intention against them was to see off the first spell, figure out what they were trying to do, and then take them on,” said Rahane. “Our motto was to score as quickly as possible and give ample time to our bowlers to pick 20 wickets. That’s what they did, full credit goes to them,” he said. — PTI