Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir has advised a change to India's stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane while telling him not to change his personality. India will be led by Rahane in the absence of Virat Kohli in the remaining three Tests, starting with the Boxing Day Test in MCG, starting December 26.
Gambhir feels the 32-year-old should stay the way he is as a captain. He suggested Rahane come up in the batting order to send a message to the opposition.
“See, one thing is you don’t change your personality overnight and you don’t need to change your personality. There are different captains, there are different personalities who have led their sides in a completely different way. Ajinkya can’t be Virat Kohli, Virat Kohli can’t be MS Dhoni and MS Dhoni could never be Sourav Ganguly. So all these guys have been successful captains,” Gambhir told Sports Today YouTube in an exclusive interview.
“So be the way you are and one change that I would definitely want to see is Ajinkya Rahane coming and batting at No. 4 because that is what would send a message that ‘I’m leading from the front’.”
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Gambhir said Rahane can be aggressive like Rahul Dravid who didn't show much emotion on the field.
He said, "It’s not about the emotions you show on the field or reacting to every wicket or reacting to every run you score and all that stuff. You’ve got many other ways of being aggressive. Your body language can be aggressive, your field placements could be aggressive, you could ask your bowlers to bowl different lengths, your batting could be different.
"There are so many other ways where you could lead from the front.. and people who say he wears his heart on his sleeve and all that stuff is irrelevant,” he added.
“I could never expect someone like MS Dhoni to show emotions, Dada was a bit more emotional, Virat Kohli’s a much more emotional guy. Anil Kumble was aggressive when he captained the side, Rahul Dravid was aggressive in his own way- set fields, we chased totals, so Ajinkya Rahane does not need to change anything.”
Australia currently has the 1-0 lead in the four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series.
(With Sports Today Inputs)
