Former Indian cricketer Ajinkya Rahane has shared his views on the Indian T20I squad for the forthcoming Afghanistan series, which is scheduled to start on Sunday, September 13, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Rahane reckoned that excluding players like Rinku Singh and Kuldeep Yadav wouldn’t make much difference to the team’s performance in the three-match series.
“I don’t think the exclusion of one or two players (Rinku and Kuldeep) will affect the performance of the team. Personally, I want Rinku to get a chance, as he has shown consistency in the IPL and even in the UPT20 league. He has shown it in his batting and has contributed whenever he got the opportunity. We must remember that his contributions have come at numbers five, six, or seven, and these are very difficult numbers for a batter in T20. I do want to see him and Kuldeep back. But it will not affect the team’s performance, as all players are equally equipped skill-wise,” Rahane said in a video on his Hindi YouTube channel.
Further, Rahane shared his prediction for the upcoming three-match T20I series, revealing that India will win the series while Afghanistan will pose a difficult challenge for the Men in Blue.
“I feel the Indian team will win the series. It is difficult for Afghanistan, or any other team, when they are playing India in India. The team has gone through and followed the process to get to the stage they are at. The system and BCCI also have to be credited. Afghanistan will fight, but you cannot keep India behind in this format at the moment,” he said.
India squad for Afghanistan T20I series: Shreyas Iyer (C), Tilak Varma (VC), Sanju Samson (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Yash Thakur.
