Highlight
Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara are struggling in Test cricket.
Shared his thoughts on the scenario Dinesh Karthik
Coach Dravid, he believes, “would be open to dropping” the couple.
Indian opener Cheteshwar Pujara went out for just three runs off 33 balls on Day 1 of the second Test against South Africa, while Ajinkya Rahane was dismissed on the first ball he faced.
Rahul Dravid would be “open” to withdrawing Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane from the current Test series against South Africa, according to India wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik, who gave his thoughts on the matter. Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara were both bowled out for ducks on the first day of the second Test between India and Pakistan, which is currently underway. KL Rahul’s half-century and Ravichandran Ashwin’s 46-run performance helped the visitors post 202 in 63.1 overs despite a significant batting collapse for them. Dravid has to make a “few of hard decisions” following Rahane’s and Pujara’s performances, according to Karthik.
According to Karthik, Rahul Dravid will be open to dropping one or both of the players because he knows they have been given a long rope in the past. Karthik spoke to Cricbuzz about this.
When Dravid took over as head coach after India’s exit from the T20 World Cup, he said that he will need to assess the situation.
“Three Test matches into his tenure as head coach and you don’t want to risk setting the stage ablaze by making major decisions early on. As a result, I believe he’s taking his time to consider what he can do to help them further their careers “His words came out like this:
Rahane’s dismissal from the Test vice-captaincy, according to Karthik, could be a precursor of things to come.
“Prior to Rahane’s dismissal as vice-captain, there was no doubt. So they’re looking forward to the future. Rohit Sharma was supposed to receive it, but he is not present.”
In his last nine Test innings, Rahane has failed to score a half-century, and in his last 25 innings, he has failed to score a century. It was in the 2020-21 Border Gavaskar Trophy when the batter last scored a century.
Pujara, on the other hand, hasn’t scored a century in 45 innings and last did so against Australia in January 2019. In addition, he hasn’t scored 50 or more runs in any of his last seven Test innings.
South Africa’s batting has also been weak in response to India’s first-innings score, and the team will be trying to narrow the deficit.
