09 February,2017 08:32 AM IST | | Subodh Mayure
Skipper Virat Kohli insists that previously injured Mumbai batsman Ajinkya 'Jinks' Rahane will walk into the team against Bangladesh despite Karun Nair's triple century in the last Test
Hyderabad: Ajinkya Rahane is all set for a comeback against Bangladesh in the one-off Test starting today at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Uppal after missing the Mumbai and Chennai Tests against England due to a finger injury.
Though Karun Nair
replaced the Mumbai batsman and scored an unbeaten triple ton in Chennai, skipper Virat Kohli is right behind Rahane to deliver.
"I feel one game doesn't overshadow two years of hard work from another player, that's my point of view. You need to understand what Jinks (Rahane's nickname) has done in the past two years," Kohli said at the pre-match press conference yesterday.
Kohli felt that Rahane, who has played 32 Tests, scoring 2272 runs with eight centuries, is the most solid batsman in current Indian team. "He (Rahane) averages almost 50 in this format and he's probably the most solid batsman in our team in the Test format - we look at him from that point of view. Certainly, Karun was stepping into his (Rahane's) shoes and what he did was remarkable - sealing his spot as far as the squad is concerned - but as I said, you can't overlook two years of hard work from Ajinkya with just one Test match. He deserves to walk back into the team."
The India skipper did not disclose his bowling combination and stressed that the Test was not about the Indian batting versus the Bangladesh bowling. "It's an equal battle," Kohli remarked.
"You can't discount the Bangladesh batting. They did really well in New Zealand. It was an outstanding effort to score more than 350 runs in one day, so we can't take any aspect of their team lightly. We need to play the same way that we play against any other side in the world and Bangladesh do have quality cricketers. The only way you can win Test matches is by persistence, application and discipline so I think we are going to focus on those things. We want to have a complete team performance," Kohli added.
