With no sporting actions in near-sight for Team India, the cricket experts have been flocking over to social media platforms to voice their unfiltered opinions and viewpoints on cricket. Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra has been one such cricket pundit who has filled the void of fans by regularly interacting with them on his YouTube channel.
Chopra has expressed his displeasure over Ajinkya Rahane’s abrupt omission from the ODI side even though the stylish right-hander put up a consistent performance at the much-debated No. 4 position.
The cricketer-turned commentator relied on statistics to support his argument and opined that Rahane’s exclusion from ODIs was like “removing a fly from milk.”
While answering the viewers’ question on his YouTube account, Chopra remarked, “His numbers at No. 4 were good. And at number 4, if you are giving good performances, consistently playing well and strike rate is also around 94, then why are you not giving him more chances?”
“He was dropped all of a sudden, just like you remove a fly from milk. Why was something like that done? I feel he was hard done by.”
Chopra further stated that Rahane is the most astute batsman at No. 4 whose style perfectly suits the orthodox approach of India in limited-overs cricket.
“If India had become like England, that they will score 350 in every match, that is the only way they will play, whether it goes their way of not. We didn’t do like that. We still play cricket in the traditional orthodox way. We still build the innings and pick a team that can score around 325, so Ajinkya Rahane would have fitted in that,” reckoned Chopra.
As far as Rahane’s record at No. 4 is concerned, the 32-years old has accumulated 411 runs at a terrific average of 51.37 since 2015.
Chopra believes that Rahane deserves a call from Team India.
“In my opinion, it was slightly unfair to him because when he was dropped from the ODI team he was absolutely fine. So when you are not playing someone after he has done well, you are not doing the right thing. In fact, when he played in South Africa, there also he did well. I remember that it was in 2018. He should get an opportunity again,” Chopra affirmed.
