WTC Final: Ajinkya Rahane included in playing XI, head coach Rahul Dravid gave big hint

Team India and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batsman Ajinkya Rahane celebrates his 35th birthday on Tuesday and a day later he could join Rohit Sharma’s team of ‘Whites’ for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia. Are. The Oval in London on Wednesday. Rahane has bounced back on the back of his impressive performances in domestic cricket as well as his sensational performances in IPL 2023.

Rahane had the highest strike-rate against fast bowlers in IPL 2023 – scoring over 232 – better than even Suryakumar Yadav. Head coach Rahul Dravid revealed that Rahane should not treat the WTC final as a ‘one-off game’.

Rahane is set to play his first Test in 18 months and a failure in the game could potentially be career-ending. Dravid had words of advice for the veteran batsman. “First of all it’s good for him. We’ve had a few injuries which has probably given him an opportunity to be back in the team. It’s great for us to have someone of his quality back. He’s obviously used a lot of that experience.” Something he brings, he brings proven performance in overseas conditions. Even in England he has played some brilliant innings for us.

He said, ‘ He also brings in the group by taking excellent catches in the slips. He also brings his personality to the group which is really important. He has brought a lot of success to the team. And once again, I would not want him to see it as just a one-off,” said the Team India head coach.

All out for 36 in Adelaide, pundits expected India to disintegrate in the upcoming matches, but then came this innings of total assurance from the stand-in captain at the MCG that showed everyone that India meant business.

Happy birthday, Ajinkya Rahane. pic.twitter.com/kvY4HCe7LJ— Rahul Sharma (@CricFnatic) June 5, 2023

Dravid said the veteran of 82 Tests can play many more five-day matches for the country.

“Sometimes you get dropped from the teams and you come back and as long as you are playing well and as long as you are performing. It is not written in stone or rule that you should only gets a match. He performs well, really shows what he’s got. Who knows, even when guys come back from injury, you never know what can happen. So “Again, from my point of view, it’s really not just about this match. Yes, this match is important but in the larger context there is a lot of cricket to be played.”

Rahul Dravid not worried about ICC trophy drought

India may not have won an ICC title in 10 years but head coach Rahul Dravid on Monday insisted that his team is not feeling any pressure ahead of the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia. However, the former India skipper said that it would be nice to win the trophy as his team has worked towards it in the last two years.

India lost the inaugural WTC final to New Zealand in 2021 and have been guilty of faltering in the knockout games. “No not at all. I mean we don’t feel any pressure in terms of trying to win an ICC trophy. Of course it would be nice to do that. It would definitely be nice to be able to win an ICC tournament. But in terms of things as well, You look at it and you see it’s the culmination of two years of work. It’s the culmination of a lot of the success that brought you here. So to see where you stand on the table, there are a lot of positive things to take from Winning series in Australia, drawing series here, being pretty competitive everywhere this team has played in the last five or six years.

“I think these are things that will never change whether you have an ICC trophy or not. It is really the bigger picture,” Dravid said.