India beat Australia by 7 wickets to win the ODI series 4-1 at Nagpur. Team India is on a high after winning three series after the ICC Champions Trophy 2017.
The Men in Blue won against West Indies, then Sri Lanka and now Australia in last three months.
Ajinkya Rahane, who was pitted in to replace Shikhar Dhawan, performed splendidly well whenever he got a chance.
He bagged the Man of the Series award in the West Indies series and has been in ominous form. But the selectors’ have dropped him from the T20I team which will face Australia from October 7. It happens to be a big surprise for fans and cricket experts since he scored back to back half-centuries in the ODI series against Steve Smith & Co.
.@ajinkyarahane88 celebrates as he brings up his 50. This is his 4th consecutive 50 of the series #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/OtF3b27NjP
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 1, 2017
But this did not upset the gentleman-like Rahane and he gave a brilliant reply when asked about the same during an interview.
“Yes, so much cricket we play, the team management, selectors take a decision and we respect it. Speaking about the competition, it is necessary and it helps you to give your best performance. Whoever gets a chance does well for the team. I have always enjoyed the competition (among players),” Rahane said.
“Yes, I am happy. The responsibility and the opportunity I was given, the way I was supposed to bat, I did. Definitely, I am happy with the form I have carried from the West Indies tour, I have made four consecutive fifties,” he explained.
“I could have converted the fifties into hundreds. It was in my mind to contribute, I shared three 100-run stands with Rohit (Sharma) and our aim was to give a good start to the team,” he added.
“It is a proud moment for all of us. Our aim is 2019 World Cup and we are going in that direction. For that we have to play series by series and match by match, the aim of this team is to win every match and series, and we always try to improve.
All have performed. In the middle-order Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav, whenever they got the opportunity, they have performed. Rohit and Virat (Kohli) have always performed well. Kuldeep (Yadav) and (Yuzvendra) Chahal got a chance and they did well. Our bench strength is good,” he further added.
“The fact that all of us get a chance and perform is a good sign. If you have to win the 2019 World Cup, then you have to test your bench strength,” Rahane, who cleaned a street near the Mumbai Cricket Associations Bandra Kurla Complex centre on Monday as part of the cleanliness campaign to mark the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, he concluded.
