Veteran Indian cricketer and former captain Sunil Gavaskar believes that the confusion over Lokesh Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane’s inclusion in, both, the ODI and Test matches must end.

Further proving his point, former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar, while writing in his column for Times of India, said Rahane come to bat in the middle-order in Test but sometimes open the batting in limited over match, while KL Rahul opens in Test and comes to bat in middle-order in T20I.

Advertisement

“Rahul opens in Tests but is a middle-order batsman for T20 internationals and Rahane bats middle order in Tests but can find a place in one-dayers only as an opener,” Gavaskar wrote.

Gavaskar also emphasised on the fact that the player should not be selected on the basis of the performance of one match and the team management should not jump to conclusion to select or drop players after they flop in one match.

Gavaskar also said that it is necessary to tell both Rahul and Rahane that they are flexible and can be asked to bat at any number.

“Both may eventually not play but in their interest, it’s important to tell them that they are flexible players who should be ready to bat anywhere in the order,” Gavaskar wrote.

While talking about the South African squad, Gavaskar said that India’s win in Wanderers by 63 runs shows that their batsmen can’t handle pace.

“Even the Don had his problems in the Bodyline series and no batsman in the world can put his hand on his heart and say he enjoys playing good fast bowling,” he wrote.

Sunil Gavaskar also believes that Virat Kohli’s squad can be the first to clinch a series in South Africa as AB de Villiers has been ruled out from the first three Test matches.

Teams:

India: Virat Kohli (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur.

South Africa: Faf du Plessis (capt), Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock (wk), JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Lungisani Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Khayelihle Zondo.