How visualising for Oz worked for Rahane

Mumbai, January 1

Ajinkya Rahane’s meticulous planning and execution of his training sessions during the Covid-induced break is helping him immensely on the ongoing tour of Australia, feels his coach Pravin Amre.

Rahane’s dogged 112 became the cornerstone of India’s famous win in the second Test in Melbourne.

Amre said credit must be given to Rahane as he visualised what he was going to face in Australia.

“This year (2020) specially we have to give credit to him because most of the time as coaches we plan the sessions and practice, but in this difficult time in Covid, he planned his own sessions, worked hard, basically harder than before, because he used to practise two sessions instead of one,” Amre said.

“But those are the things… Small things he worked (on), he visualised this is going to be my preparation for this tough tour of Australia. And any success can’t come just like that, we know preparation is important,” said Amre, who played in 11 Tests and 37 ODIs.

Keeping it simple

Asked what message he gave Rahane before the tour, Amre said he just told the fellow Mumbaikar to keep things simple. “We don’t think about multiple tours at one time. We try to be in that one tour, take one tour at a time and try to give best in that basically. And that is what Ajinkya did,” Amre, who scored a century on his Test debut in 1992, said.

Amre lauded Rahane for leading the team from the front, especially after the disastrous loss in the first Test in which the team was bowled out for 36 in the second innings.

“That credit (for captaincy) is for Ajinkya only because as a coach we never work on things like captaincy, we work mainly on the batting side of the game When the opportunity came to lead, it is all his credit,” the 52-year-old Amre said. “The handling the situation wasn’t easy but credit goes to him because of his calm nature also. He is calm and composed and that is the reason he was successful as captain.”

“The small changes he did, backing youngsters, getting Ashwin in first hour and using Bumrah brilliantly… Because this is Test match, we haven’t allowed their tail to wag and we made sure that Bumrah and (other) pace bowlers were fresh to bowl them and we never allowed to drag the match and rather never allowed them to get that partnership,” said Amre.

Amre rates Rahane’s knock of 112 highly. “I personally rate it very high. Because it is like sometimes you play for yourself to survive in the team, this is like survival of Team India in Australia, because we wanted to win the pride, what we lost in the first Test,” he said. — PTI