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Fast bowler Kagiso Rabada’s five-wicket haul has put South Africa on the back foot on the first day of the Test match at Centurion. After playing in the ODI World Cup, Rabada was away from cricket for a long time. Due to injury, he could not even train and was close to being ruled out of the Test series against India. But eventually he became part of the Test series and destroyed India’s batting order in the very first match. Sunil Gavaskar expressed concern over the performance of India’s batsmen and regretted the absence of Ajinkya Rahane.
Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara were dropped in early 2022 due to poor performances in Test cricket. The team wanted to replace him with new players. However, Pujara made a comeback due to his strong performances in county cricket. But Rahane was out for almost 12 months. However, based on his strong performance in the IPL, he managed to make a comeback and played a few Test matches for India. Having seen the Indian batting struggle in the ongoing first Test against South Africa, Gavaskar said India’s score in Centurion would have been different if the team had picked Rahane.
The India legend recalled the Johannesburg match during the 2018/19 series and how Rahane was not given a chance in the first two matches and came on in the last match to play a vital role in India’s victory.
Sunil Gavaskar told a Star Sports show, “People are talking about the Johannesburg pitch five years ago and I was there. Yes, it was not easy to bat on the pitch there and Ajinkya Rahane, who was not selected in the first two matches, got a chance in the third match. And it showed what Team India has missed because never before has India lost the first few Tests by such a huge margin. Because Rahane is a good overseas player and maybe if he was there today the story would be completely different.