WTC Final: Ajinkya Rahane trudges back to dressing room as India sink further

After Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja got out earlier in the day in the ongoing World Test Championship final, India’s hopes were completely hanging on Ajinkya Rahane’s shoulders but unfortunately, the cricketer couldn’t shine bright enough. He was playing some good cricket but in the 57th over of the second innings, Mitchell Starc got the better of him, as the veteran cricketer got out after scoring 46 runs at The Oval.

Notably, Rahane was not in India’s scheme of things leading into the WTC final. However, with Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer currently out of action due to their respective injuries, the selectors gave Rahane another chance to prove himself and he did a commendable job in the first innings. When most of the Indian batters struggled to get going, the 35-year-old played some brilliant cricket and hit 89 runs to give Indians some form of hope.

Meanwhile, he along with Virat Kohli looked solid on the pitch towards the fag end of Day 4 and thus, there was some sense of optimism in the air that the Rohit Sharma-led side can go on to chase 280 runs on the final day of the mega clash. 

Interestingly, the duo started well in the morning session but Kohli once again got out while playing a cover drive to Scott Boland. He seemed to lack some concentration as the cricketer was leaving all the deliveries outside off before the only one he chose to smack.

Notably, soon after Rahane’s dismissal, Shardul Thakur too walked back to the pavilion as Nathan Lyon got the better of him. Both Rahane and Shardul were India’s heroes with the bat in the first innings and with them gone pretty early, team India is completely on the back foot.

On the other hand, stumper batter KS Bharat has shown a lot of promise in the middle but it will be a daunting task to win the match or even secure a draw. The tailenders will have to play some exceptional cricket in order to get the job done - something that’s very unlikely as the Australians are in full control of the match at the moment.