He also lauded Ashwin and Vihari's efforts with the bat to help India draw the third Test.
India’s stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane on Monday (January 11) said the tourists are “really upset” with the racial abuse on bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah in the just-concluded third Pink Test against Australia at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
Bumrah and Siraj were racially abused by a section of Sydney fans on Day 3 of the Pink Test against Australia and even the crowd did not stop on Day 4 of the SCG Test, allegedly calling the pacer a ‘Brown Dog’ and ‘Big Monkey’ in the series of racist jibes on Sunday as well.
Reacting to the same, Rahane said the Indian cricket team is upset with the Australian crowd behavior, saying such unruly behavior is not at all acceptable and it should not happen anywhere in the world.
Rahane said during a virtual press conference on Monday: “See, we have lodged a complaint, officials are looking into the matter now. I spoke to match referee and umpires about what had happened, whatever happened on the field was not acceptable at all, it should not happen anywhere in the world, we were really upset about it.”
Meanwhile, the laudable efforts from Hanuma Vihari and R Ashwin – who batted out 258 balls to help India pull off a brilliant draw in the third Test of the four-Test series to keep India’s chances alive to reclaim the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia.
The captain hailed the two for their efforts by saying they were just counting the balls and had belief in the ability of Ashwin (39 off 128 balls) and Vihari –who hit an unbeaten 161-ball 23, to do the job with the bat in the action-packed fifth day of the third Test at SCG.
Rahane signed off by saying, “Especially last five-six overs, we were quite numb. We were counting the number of balls left, apart from that, we all were sure about Ashwin's ability with the bat as to how good he is, Vihari was batting really well throughout the series but he could not get the big scores. Today he showed he can bat really well, our message at tea was to bat one ball at a time and not think too far ahead.”
(With ANI Inputs)