Not Playing Rahane & Bhuvneshwar Is A Shame: Manoj Prabhakar

Former India all-rounder, Manoj Prabhakar, seems to be unhappy with the non-inclusion of Bhuvneshwar Kumar (for the second Test) and Ajinkya Rahane (for both Test matches) in the team as he has said its a shame that these two players haven’t got a place in the playing XI,

“This is a shame. If you start picking Test side on T20I or ODIs form, then you’re gone. It’s a specialist job to play new ball in Test matches. We have Rishabh Pant here, will you play him for a Test? — He can score a century in 25-30 balls. There you need different technique. But here one batsman scores double century in ODIs and his position is fixed. Rahane should have (played)… That’s our problem,” he said on the eve of the start of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Super League.

Ajinkya Rahane has surprisingly not found favour in both the Test matches and the captain has benched him for his poor form in the series against Sri Lanka, where Rohit Sharma enjoyed his fair share of success. Though he is struggling to score runs in South Africa and four innings, his highest score is 47.

Rahane is the best batsman for the Indian cricket team on foreign soil, and he is expected to be part of playing XI in Test matches, always, but he has not been given a chance till now. Him, getting a chance to bat in the third Test, seems unlikely again as Rohit played an innings of 47, which might save him from getting dropped.

On the other hand, Bhuvneshwar was never a part of Kohli’s plans as he only played the first Test after Ishant was not fully fit to play the opening game. This news is a surprising one again as Bhuvneshwar came here as the leader of the pace attack but was all set to be benched for the first game.

Captain fulfilled his wish and excluded him for the second Test, despite Bhuvneshwar contributing with both bat and ball in the first game of the series.

The non-inclusion of these two players have even taken legends like Sunil Gavaskar, Michael Holding by surprise and the captain needs to work out some plans to salvage pride in the third Test.

South African team whitewashing Indian cricket team in the Test series looks quite likely. Interestingly, this is also the first Test series which India is playing outside Asia and West Indies under Kohli (as full-time captain for a complete series) and have failed to post even a single win till now.

Follow India’s tour to South Africa here: South Africa Vs India – Freedom Series

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