‘Even great players need to be motivated’ – Maninder Singh asks Ravi Shastri to be proactive surrounding Ajinkya Rahane’s poor form

India had a horrible ending on day four of the Leeds Test against England as they were all out for 278, thereby losing the Test match by an innings and 76 runs. All the hard work done by the top-order batters was undone by a brilliant spell of fast bowling from England pacer Ollie Robinson, who picked up five wickets. As with such innings defeats, the experts and former players were quick to note what went wrong.

Former India player Maninder Singh has talked about vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane and has said that Ravi Shastri should talk to the batter and help him get over from the poor patch. Rahane got out for 10 in the second innings and scored just 18 runs in the first innings. Rahane managed to score 61 in India’s epic win at the Lord’s but has failed to score runs in the other two Tests.

Maninder felt Shastri needed to motivate Rahane and help the right-hander get back to run-scoring ways. “I think there is going to be a lot of talks. Ravi Shastri is a good motivator and he has motivated this Indian team really well. That is why, probably, if you see their record since he has become coach, it has been pretty good,” Maninder told ESPNcicinfo.

The former off-spinner further opined that Shastri cannot think that Rahane has played a lot of Tests and needs no motivation. “I would be expecting Ravi Shastri to be a little over-active. Ajinkya Rahane has played 80-odd Test matches. But Shastri can’t think that he has played 80 Tests, so he knows his job.”

“Sometimes even great players need to be motivated. You need to sit with them, maybe take him out for dinner or something. You need to keep telling Rahane that he has done it before, he can do it again, and that he has got to be in a positive frame of mind. That is one department where all coaches need to be proactive,” explained Maninder

Ajinkya Rahane won’t be dropped: Maninder Singh

Maninder further concluded by saying that Rahane won’t be dropped from the team owing to his fantastic record in abroad matches. “Ajinkya Rahane has been very tentative and I really don’t know why. His average abroad is much higher than his average on Indian pitches.

“He has always scored runs. I don’t know what’s gone wrong where. But I don’t see him getting dropped or anything. Can’t see any change as far as the batting line-up is concerned,” he added.