Team India coach Rahul Dravid on Monday got here out in help of vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, who suffered one other flop present with the bat within the drawn first Test towards New Zealand on the Green Park Stadium.
Rahane, who led India within the absence of Virat Kohli in Kanpur, is strolling on skinny ice in the intervening time because of his lack of runs in Tests this 12 months.He scored simply 35 and 4 in each innings for the primary Test whereas his profession common dropped under 40 as a result of repeated failures. The 33-year-old has amassed simply 411 runs from 12 Tests in 2021 to this point at a median of 19.57 with two half-centuries and scored simply 1 hundred within the final two years.IND vs NZ, 1st Test: Highlights | ReportBut Dravid nonetheless has religion within the veteran Mumbai batsman and believes that it is just a matter of time earlier than Rahane turns his type round and regains his contact with the bat in red-ball cricket.Asked if Rahane’s poor type is a trigger for concern for India, Dravid mentioned: “I imply you don’t get frightened. Of course, you prefer to extra runs from Ajinkya, he wish to rating extra runs.”He is a quality player and he has done well for India in the past. He is one of those guys who has quality and experience and it’s matter of a game when he would like to turn it around, and he knows that, and we know that,” the former India captain said after the match.Calls have been growing louder in the Indian cricketing fraternity to drop Rahane but Dravid refused to indulge in their selection plans for the second Test in Mumbai in which Virat Kohli will return to lead the team.”Look, we haven’t determined what shall be our enjoying XI and it’s too early. At least, at present our focus was on this recreation and once we go to Mumbai, we are going to assess the situations and test folks’s health.”Virat Kohli will join us so we have to discuss with him also and then take a decision,” Dravid added.DRAVID DEFENDS DECLARATION TIMINGDravid also dismissed the suggestion that the timing of India’s declaration may have cost them victory in Kanpur. India declared their second innings on 234 for 7 on Sunday, setting New Zealand a victory target of 284.New Zealand’s final batting pair of Rachin Ravindra and Ajaz Patel saw out the last 52 balls to force a draw in the first match of the two-Test series.”I do not suppose so. That’s not my studying of the sport. Till half an hour earlier than we declared, we had been beneath stress. All three outcomes had been doable, to be very sincere with you. I assumed we timed that declaration rather well,” Dravid, who took over the teaching function earlier this month, mentioned when requested if India had delayed their declaration too lengthy.