Former Indian cricketer and cricket analyst Aakash Chopra believes that the Indian cricket team would not have won the second Test against England without the crucial partnership between Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane at Lord’s Cricket Ground.
Rahane and Pujara got together in the middle after Virat Kohli was sent back to the pavilion with a lot of pressure on both the experienced players, given their poor performances in the first three innings, but they eventually showed their potential with the bat in the second innings against England at Lord’s.
Apart from tiring out the England bowling attack for almost 50 overs, the senior batsmen provided the much-needed resistance to Team India and made significant contributions with the bat. Pujara (45 runs off 206 balls) and Rahane (61 off 146 balls) added 100 runs for the fourth wicket to help India post 298/8 against England with the hosts going on to lose by 151 runs chasing the 272-run target at Lord’s.
Praising the two Test specialists, the former batsman said their second-innings partnership was the biggest positive for India going forward in the five-match Test series in England.
Chopra said on his YouTube channel, “It was the biggest positive according to me, the most critical kind of contribution. If you weigh it in terms of runs, you will say it is okay, what's the problem. When it was going on, people were saying that nothing is going to happen if they play so slow, you are not giving yourself the chance to win.”
He added, “I am talking about Rahane and Pujara. They batted through an entire session and added 49 runs in that second session. If they had not batted, you would have packed your bags at the end of the fourth day's play itself and moved towards Leeds, you would not have won that match.”
Highlighting how the critics were questioning Rahane and Pujara's spot in the playing XI, Chopra said: “Both of them had so much pressure, they were trying to save their places. Everyone was asking Pujara to be dropped, half of the people were saying that Rahane should also be dropped.”
However, the cricketer-turned-commentator feels they have put a full stop to the speculations for some time about their place in the Indian Test side with their efforts at Lord’s.
He signed off by saying, “They said wait a minute, we are still there. If you talk from this series' perspective, they have put a full stop to the speculations for some time. I think that's the best thing that has happened to this Indian cricket team because the time had not come to replace Pujara and Rahane.”
