Sanjay Bangar, Chris Woakes praise Rahane after his form-hitting 81

Things were not looking good with Ajinkya Rahane, India’s vice-captain who was seen as a worthy successor of Rahul Dravid even a few years ago. With just 48 runs in four innings of the ongoing Test series against England, the 30-year-old batsman’s promising career was heading for uncertainty. And it was just in the nick of time that his knock of 81 came in the third Test at Trent Bridge.

For Rahane, it was the mental preparation after the shattering Lord’s Test which helped him regain the focus. For India’s batting coach Sanjay Bangar, it was the confidence that the team management showed in the middle-order batsman that saw him getting his touch back.

‘Team showed confidence in Rahane’

“Ravi (Shastri) coming out and saying that he is still the pillar of Indian batting might have done a whole lot of good for his confidence,” Bangar was quoted by The Times of India as saying. Rahane put up a crucial stand of 159 runs with captain Virat Kohli (97) for the fourth wicket to see India reaching a competitive score of 329.

India then bowled out England for 161 in their first innings and are in the driver’s seat now at Trent Bridge. Besides Bangar, even English players came out praising Rahane. Chris Woakes, the hero of the Lord’s Test, said, “These guys are world-class players, even though they are in different conditions.

With the ball moving around, I thought that he left the ball a little bit better than he has done and made us go to him a little bit more…Naturally, Indian players are good off their legs and off their stumps most of the time,” Woakes said about Rahane in particular and the Indian batsmen in general.

Bangar said Kohli and Rahane played with intent during their partnership and that helped India to put up a score of 300-plus by the end of Day one. Rahane also completed 3,000 Test runs during his innings at Trent Bridge.

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