Johannesburg,
\nIndia coach Ravi Shastri on Monday defended the team management\u2019s decision to leave out Ajinkya Rahane from the first two Tests in South Africa, saying Rohit Sharma was the best option going by form.<\/p>\n
One of the most successful Indian batsmen overseas in recent years, vice-captain Rahane was not picked for the Tests in Cape Town and Centurion, with the Indian team management preferring to go with limited-overs specialist Sharma on \u201ccurrent form\u201d.<\/p>\n
But Sharma\u2019s failure to live up to the expectations and the Indian batting\u2019s inability to stand up to the South African pace attack in the preceding matches attracted widespread criticism, forcing the management to rethink about Rahane.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Ajinkya (Rahane) had played the first Test and not done well, you would have asked me the same question about why Rohit hasn\u2019t played. Rohit played, he didn\u2019t do well, so you are asking me why Ajinkya didn\u2019t play,\u201d a defiant Shastri told reporters when queried about the selection policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same would have happened with the fast bowlers. So you have choices. The team management has discussed what is the best option. They stick by it and they go by it,\u201d Shastri said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverseas, you go on current form, you go on conditions. You see which player can adapt to certain conditions quicker than the other,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
But if yesterday and today\u2019s practice sessions at the Wanderers were any indication, there is a possibility of Rahane\u2019s return to the playing XI for the inconsequential third Test starting here on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The India coach said on overseas tours, a team is forced to select their playing XI keeping conditions in mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cChopping and changing overseas is easier. In India, you don\u2019t need to chop and change because you know what the conditions are and for which bowler to play, as opposed to what kind of track you will get,\u201d Shastri said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether you need a bowler with bounce or you need a bowler with swing, so that\u2019s where the chopping and changing starts,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Shastri also refused to the criticism back home.<\/p>\n
\u201cExperts are meant to do a job. They can say what they want. It doesn\u2019t affect us. They have a job to do, so they are entitled to what they say,\u201d Shastri signed off.<\/p>\n
Shastri\u2019s dig at experts came following former India opener Virender Sehwag\u2019s criticism of skipper Virat Kohli\u2019s selection policy.<\/p>\n
After suffering a 72-run defeat in the first Test in Cape Town, India made three changes to their playing XI with KL Rahul replacing Shikhar Dhawan and Ishant Sharma coming in for Bhuvneshwar Kumar, whose three-wicket burst in the first morning of the opening Test had rocked the hosts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Johannesburg, India coach Ravi Shastri on Monday defended the team management\u2019s decision to leave out Ajinkya Rahane from the first two Tests in South Africa, saying Rohit Sharma was the best option going by form. One of the most successful Indian batsmen overseas in recent years, vice-captain Rahane was not picked for the Tests in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19637,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19638,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19636\/revisions\/19638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}