IND vs SA: You Need To Trust Your Experienced Guys – Wasim Jaffer On Ajinkya Rahane's Inclusion In The 1st Test vs South Africa

Former Indian cricketer Wasim Jaffer has opined that it was fair to include senior batsman Ajinkya Rahane in India playing XI in the first match of the 3-match Test series against Dean Elgar-led South Africa National Cricket Team at the SuperSport Park, Centurion.

Ajinkya Rahane was recently removed from Test vice-captaincy and his place in the Test team had come under the scanner due to his poor performance with the bat for an extended period. Rahane in 2021 has played 12 Test matches for India and he has managed to score only 411 runs at an underwhelming average of 19.57 including only 2 half-centuries.

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Many expected Shreyas Iyer who scored a century and a fifty on his debut or Hanuma Vihari who has done a brilliant job in the shadow tour of South Africa to be a part of the playing XI but Indian management decided to go with Rahane instead.

India Need To Stick With Them In The Important Series – Wasim Jaffer On Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara’s Inclusion

On ESPNcricinfo Wasim Jaffer was asked, was it fair to give Rahane the nod over Shreyas Iyer and Hanuma Vihari to which he replied: “I think so, I think with so much experience, like I said during the New Zealand series, you need to take a call on Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane after this series because they have not been at their best for a while now, you need to take a call on how this series goes for both of them and then can take a call. ”

Meanwhile, Jaffer further added that the new guys like Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari and even Suryakumar Yadav are waiting to get an opportunity and they can do the job for the team.

However, Jaffer feels that India need to trust experienced players; Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, in the important series and if they fail here India should take a ” serious call”.

“Because you have got Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav waiting. So, those guys can do the job but you need to trust your experienced guys and those two guys [ Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara] have done a wonderful job so far.

“So you need to stick with them in the important series and take a call, if this series goes well then obviously they continue, if anything goes wrong then you need to take a serious call,” he elaborated.

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