Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar Praises Ajinkya Rahane following his impressive half-century in the WTC 2023 final game against Australia. WTC 2023 final is scheduled to play from June 7 to 11 in Kennington Oval, London between India and Australia.
Sunil Gavaskar Praises Ajinkya Rahane
Rahane, who returned to the Indian team after more than a year, scored a fighting 89 runs to help India avoid the follow-on. He shared a crucial 109-run stand for the seventh wicket with Shardul Thakur to revive India’s innings after they lost KS Bharat early on the second ball of the day.
During his heroic knock, Rahane suffered a lot of body blows from the Australian bowlers. He hurt his finger in the process and struggled during the match. The batter later revealed the status of his finger injury and is expected to feature in the remaining innings of the match.
Praising the India batter for his knock, legendary player Sunil Gavaskar termed Rahane as a ‘low-profile player’.
“Look at the hundreds he scored, they have mostly been when India were in trouble. He has always risen to the occasion; he has a sense of the occasion. He’s one of those low-profile players who won’t be thumping his chest when he gets to a half-century or a century. He just raises his bat, goes about his business quietly, but assuredly,” Gavaskar said on-air during his commentary on Star Sports.
.@ajinkyarahane88 talks about the significance of partnerships and how a comeback is all that is needed to make the difference now!
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Today, 2 PM onwards | Star Sports Network & Disney+Hotstar.#UltimateTest #BelieveInBlue #Cricket pic.twitter.com/KPiXGEiEC1— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) June 10, 2023
Winning the toss, Rohit Sharma led the Indian Test team opted to bowl first and that too particularly without the world’s top-ranked Test bowler – spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
With Australia 76/3 at one stage it looked as if India’s selection could be the right one. But an unbroken 251-run stand between Head and Smith helped Australia to 469 at the close, leaving India on the back foot in the game.
Earlier, Bowling coach Paras Mhambrey backs Indian bowlers after an unimpressive first day in WTC 2023 final and explains the reason for the exclusion of Ashwin from the playing 11.
While on the other hand, the Australian bowling attack came out strong, reducing India to 151-5 by stumps on day two. Pat Cummins drew first blood by removing Rohit Sharma, while Scott Boland and Cameron Green showcased their skills to dismiss Shubman Gill and Chiteshwar Pujara, respectively.
The left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc generated extra bounce to dismiss Virat Kohli for 14 runs while Lyon dismissed Jadeja for 48 runs. India ended up scoring 269 runs in their first innings.
At the end of day 3 Australia scored 123 runs for 4 wickets loss and made a lead of 296 runs.
