India's stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane on Friday (December 24) insisted that he won't put any pressure on the opening batsmen as their role is very crucial for the team ahead of Friday’s Boxing Day Test against Australia at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
In the first Day-Night Test at Adelaide Oval, both India’s openers Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal failed as the Australian pace battery took the hosts to an 8-wicket win over the tourists in the ongoing four-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
While Shaw managed a duck and four in the first pink-ball Test, Agarwal showed some intent in the first innings, but couldn’t handle Josh Hazlewood in the second innings.
Well, Team India now look for a comeback in the Test series with the second Test at MCG and Rahane said he will give freedom to his openers to play their own game in the Boxing Day Test instead of putting pressure on them following a crushing defeat in the first Test against Australia.
BCCI announced India's playing XI for the MCG Test and Shubman Gill will make his debut for India and will open the innings with Mayank Agarwal.
Rahane told ANI on Friday: “See the opener's role not only in Australia but everywhere is really crucial and I don't want to put any pressure on our openers. Just want to give them freedom so that they can play their game. Having said that as mentioned, the openers' role is very crucial, when you get that partnership going it becomes really easy for the coming batsmen.”
The stand-in captain also admitted India will miss their skipper and leading batsman Virat Kohli – who returned home on paternity leave in the Test series in Australia.
The right-hander further added, “We definitely miss Virat (Kohli), obviously when you have him it's a great thing so we will definitely miss him as he is not there.”
While insisting India just had a bad session in the Adelaide Test and that cost them, but now they are well prepared to take on the mighty Australians in the second Test at MCG.
Rahane signed off by saying, “The last couple of net sessions, the preparations have been really good. Talking about the last Test, we had two good days and just one bad session where we lost it completely. We want to stick to the same plans that we had in the first Test.”
(With ANI Inputs)
