5 Players who can replace Ajinkya Rahane for the South Africa tour

Ajinkya Rahane has been having a torrid time as the batter has been struggling for quite a while now. Despite being India’s vice-captain in the longest format of the game, there have been calls to drop him. It’s been a while since his fans have seen him bat at his best.

The Mumbai batter has scored just 591 runs in his last 20 innings. It gets worse when one realises that barring his match-winning century at the MCG in 2020, he doesn’t have too many impactful knocks under his name. The stand-in Test captain of India had an awful outing with the bat in the first Test against New Zealand.

Thus, in all likelihood, the Indian selectors might look to replace him going into the upcoming tour to South Africa. Several players have made a strong case to replace the veteran. So which players stand a chance to become India’s new number five in Tests?

In the article, we shall be taking a look at five Players who can replace Ajinkya Rahane for the South Africa tour:

1) Hanuma Vihari

Hanuma Vihari has been one of the unluckiest Indian batters of late. Despite not doing much wrong, he was dropped from the side. Thus, it is only fair if he deservingly returns to the Test team.

After being tested in the difficult conditions of Australia and New Zealand, the 28-year-old was dropped for the home series. As a matter of fact, he played an amazing innings to draw the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2020-21 at the SCG. It was his 23 from 161 deliveries on day five that ensured that India didn’t lose the game.

Speaking about his overall numbers, the Andhra Pradesh batter has scored 624 runs in 12 Tests so far. His batting average and strike rate are 32.84 and 42.56 respectively. This includes four fifties and a hundred.