Former Indian middle-order batter Ajinkya Rahane, who recently announced his retirement from all forms of the game, has asserted that the Indian Test team should have at least eight senior cricketers in its squad.
Speaking exclusively on the Overlap Cricket YouTube channel, Rahane advised the Indian team management to respect the senior cricketers, adding that the Test team should have more veterans with two or three youngsters.
“Test cricket fans are proper cricket lovers. New players have come in over the last two years in Tests. I still feel Test cricket needs seven to eight senior cricketers and two to three younger players. But what we are seeing now is that all the players are actually new,” Rahane said on the Overlap Cricket YouTube channel.
“There are hardly any senior players left. Test cricket needs them. You need to respect the senior players. I fear for the future of Test cricket. Especially the Indian team; all the senior players going at once has been the issue,” he added.
Furthermore, Rahane revealed that the centuries at the MCG in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2020-21 and at Lord’s in 2014 as his top moments of his career. Moreover, he delved into the details of the sledging incidents from the BGT 2020-21 series.
“It (MCG Century in 2020-21) was the top moment of my career, along with the century at Lord’s in 2014. When the match was going on, it was typical of Australians. They were sledging all the time. Without Virat Kohli and Shami injured, they thought they were all over us. I tried very hard to be in the moment, though it was very tough. But when I got the hundred, everyone came up to me and acknowledged it,” he stated.
“I didn’t respond at all to their sledging. I remember the first session, they went hard at me. It was typical of Australians; they like to target the captains of the opposition teams. Once the captain crumbles, they know the team will crumble under pressure. They tried very hard, but I had my methods, and it was my fourth or fifth tour of Australia,” he concluded.
