Ajinkya Rahane Defends India's Ability To Face Short Balls

Ajinkya Rahane, India’s vice-captain in the longest format of the game, has defended him and the entire team who have recently been under fire for not handling the short-ball tactically well.

Team India faced humiliation on the global stage when the Kiwis dominated them in the recently concluded Test series. India’s batsmen had no answers for the Kiwi bowlers as the Black Caps pacers rattled through the Indian batting line up in both the games of the series.

The Indian team has always been known to perish under pressure in swinging and bouncy conditions. But they washed off this stain with their performances over the last couple of years, especially in Test cricket.

However, the same ghost seemed to back during India’s recent outing in New Zealand as Indian batsmen continuously seemed under trouble.

Now, the Test deputy has come to the defence of India’s batsmen and has said that India has no problems in dealing with short deliveries.

Ajinkya Rahane Defends India’s Ability To Face Short Balls

“People are speaking too much about it (short balls). If you see Melbourne innings, we have dominated. We all play short-balls well, one game doesn’t make you bad players of short ball,” Rahane told reporters in Mumbai.

“They (NZ bowlers) used the breeze factor very well because in New Zealand it was biggest factor, cutting the angle and pace. We have to stay focussed and positive and the next series is in Australia and there is a long way to go, looking forward to that,” the right-handed batsman added.

Ajinkya Rahane Opens Up About The Future

“We have really done a good job in the last three-four years. Now Test Championship has started. In this journey, you are going to win and lose some matches,” he added.

Ajinkya Rahane also said that he was not overly worried about his own poor run.

“I am not too much worried about that and I am not going too much deep in that. Test Championship is all about one match and one series at a time, one match at a time because points are involved, because one bad game or two bad games will not make us bad team,” Rahane said.

India will now face off South Africa in a three-match ODI series, the first game of which will be played on March 12 at Dharamshala.

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