Despite consistent performances, Ajinkya Rahane remains India’s third opener in ODIs

Tags: India, Ajinkya Madhukar Rahane

Published on: Oct 22, 2017

On the eve of India facing New Zealand in a one-day series, captain Virat Kohli stated that Ajinkya Rahane remains in the team as the third opener

On the eve of India facing New Zealand in a one-day series, captain Virat Kohli stated that Ajinkya Rahane remains in the team as the third opener despite scoring four consecutive half-centuries against Australia. Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma are India's regular openers.

"He's definitely grabbed his opportunities as the third opener. As I mentioned there was K L as well competing for the spot. But Jinx has performed well, stood up and taken his chances,” Rahane was quoted as saying in a CricketNext report.

"That's how the dynamics of a team work when you have four guys who play in a similar position and obviously one of them will have to miss out as only two can play in the XI," added.

On whether Rahane could slot in in the middle order, Kohli added, "We don't want him to confuse too much by making him play in the middle order because you need to find your game in ODI cricket. You need to understand how to go about things in ODI cricket and he has always been solid at the top of the order because of his technique and he likes playing there. It gives him freedom to go after the bowlers.”’

"So as I said we don't want to confuse him, he is in a happy space and he knows whenever someone is not going through a good phase or there is an injury, he is there, right at the door steps waiting to play a game whenever the team requires him to," explained the Indian captain.

--By A Cricket Correspondent

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