Former Indian outfield coach R Sridhar revealed an interesting story about Ajinkya Rahane during the 2018-19 Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT), calling him a non-weak character. Sridhar pointed out that Rahane’s captaincy is underrated and that players have an opportunity to be heard under his leadership. Rahane played his last test match against South Africa in Newlands in January 2022.
Ajinkya Rahane led Team India in Kohli’s absence and did well, winning four of the six Tests he captained between 2017 and 2021. The right-handed batsman led the team to victory against Australia in the Dharamsala Test in 2017 to clinch the the Border- Gavaskar Trophy. He guided the team to arguably the biggest Test series victory in Australia in BGT 2020-21.
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Ajinkya was not a weak character – R Sridhar
In the book ‘Coaching Beyond – My Days with the Indian Cricket Team’, R Sridhar wrote about Ajinkya Rahane’s captaincy and the incident when Prithvi Shaw was hit in the shin guard in a warm-up match at Drummoyne, Sydney. Sridhar explained that Ajinkya is not a weak character and that he was immediately seen at the place where Prithvi was beaten.
“Don’t make mistakes; Ajinkya was not a weak character. There was this incident when Prithvi Shaw was playing short leg in a warm-up game at Drummoyne, Sydney. The batsman went for a sweep and Prithvi was slapped across the face as he tried to hobble off From the park to the locker room, Ajinkya quickly got on his case. From his position on the slip, he had clearly seen exactly where Prithvi had been hit, who was on the shin guard.” wrote in his book.
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Sridhar revealed that Rahane and Ajinkya instructed Prithvi to return to her short leg and get into position, and that she would not tolerate any mischief.
“Rahane walked up to him and said firmly, ‘Don’t take another step. No one will replace you on the field. I know that nothing is wrong with you, I saw that the ball hit you in the shin guard. Maybe you were waiting for an opportunity to get back in, but that’s not happening. Go back to short leg and get into position.’ Prithvi knew that his bluff had been found out, and Ajinkya had subtly told the rest that he would brook no mischief. I was very relieved that I was the one to come on as a substitute as we only had an XI for that match.”
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