Ajinkya Rahane Shares Dressing Room Conversation With Virat Kohli Before The Latter Departed For India

Stand-in skipper of the Indian team, Ajinkya Rahane reveals the conversation Virat Kohli had with the team before leaving Australia. Kohli, the regular skipper has returned to India as he has been granted paternity leave by the BCCI to attend the birth of his child with his wife and Bollywood actress, Anushka Sharma.

Ajinkya Rahane will step into Kohli’s captaincy shoes for the remainder of the series. Rahane said that Kohli spoke with everyone in Adelaide. Kohli advised the players to be in a positive mindset and to live in the moment and not think about the shameful loss in Adelaide. Kohli said that the team should play as a collective whole and help out each other on the field.

“Yeah, Virat spoke to all of us, before leaving. We had our team dinner in Adelaide, so he spoke to all of us about staying in the moment, playing for each other, and yeah enjoying each other’s success and help each other out on the field,” Ajinkya Rahane said ahead of the second Test.

We had just one bad hour in Adelaide: Ajinkya Rahane

Speaking about the humiliating batting failure in the second innings in Adelaide where India was bowled out for their lowest ever Test total, Rahane opined that the team was ahead of the opposition after the end of Day 2, but had one bad hour in the first session of Day 3.

India threw away their vital lead of 53 runs gained in the first innings by adding just 36 runs in the second innings.

“Talking about last Test match, see comparatively we had two good days, just one bad hour, where we actually lost it completely,” he said.

The 32-year-old reckons that the team has to back themselves on individual and group levels. Rahane suggests the players stick to their plans and basics and remain positive.

“The chat was all about backing ourselves as an individual and as a team, play to our strengths and whatever we have planned in the first Test match just stick to that. We have to back our basics, back our plans, as I said earlier, we just had one bad hour, so it is all about staying positive, backing your own ability and batting in partnerships,” Rahane added.

.@ajinkyarahane88 on @imVkohli's message for #TeamIndia before his departure. #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/nui9nKZvU6

— BCCI (@BCCI) December 25, 2020

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