India levelled the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series after defeating Australia by eight wickets at MCG on Tuesday. Cricket fans have been applauding the coordinated efforts by the Indian team and its stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. His 112 off 223 balls in the first innings followed by his style of finishing off in the second, led him to the man of the match honours.
While experts have been discussing about promoting Rahane as the full-time skipper of the Test team, former India cricketer Deep Dasgupta thinks such questions are arising only because people don’t approve of captain Virat Kohli’s expressive approach. Contrarily, Rahane mostly remains calm on the field while leading the team.
“I am taking nothing away from him (Rahane), but it’s just one Test match. Other leaders in the team like R Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah also stepped up. Let’s hold on to our horses as Virat Kohli hasn’t done anything wrong either. It seems like people have a problem with the way he expresses himself, but that’s the way he is,” Deep Dasgupta told India Today.
Dasgupta further pointed to the fact that India recorded multiple victories under Kohli’s guidance and maintained the No 1 Test spot for a long time. Kohli’s leadership also led the Men in Blue to astounding victories in T20I matches, and except for the let down in Adelaide, the team has been going quite well under him.
“Kohli is the same captain under whom the Indian team won in Australia back in 2018-19. India was the No. 1 Test side for a very long time under his leadership. It’s good for Indian cricket that they have so many leaders, but it’s just one good win doesn’t. Even in Adelaide, the Indian team played well and was on top of Australia except for that one session where the team went through a batting debacle. In terms of batting, a captain can’t do much,” he further added.
