Fans express their disappointment for Ajinkya Rahane after he failed to score runs against England at Lords

India’s Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane is certainly going through lean patch at the moment including Pujara and Kohli combined but Kohli has shown grit and determination by scoring 42 runs was looking strong to convert these into half-century but he nicked a ball outside the fourth stump delivered by Ollie Robinson which skipper nicked and was catch in first slip by Joe Root.

Virat Kohli has defended vice-captain Rahane in recent press conference when the journalist asked questions about Rahane’s poor form who failed to reach in double-digit figure in last two innings he has played in England.

“I do not think Ajinkya Rahane’s form is an area of concern. Our basic focus is not to think about where are people individually at the moment, collectively how much strength they bring into the team is our focus,” Kohli said.

The questions that cricket fans are asking on social media is about Rahane and Pujara’s consistency with the bat as they both only play one format of the game and still they are failing to deliver at a big stage.

In 2021, Rahane has averaged poor with 20.69 in his 14 innings which includes his 23 ball 1 run at the Lords in second Test.

More than the dry spell of runs, it is Rahane’s mode of dismissals that have become a concern. He ran himself out at Trent Bridge for five, looking increasingly nervous with each passing delivery.

However Twitterati could not hold back against Indian deputy and vested out their frustration on their social media are described below:

Kohli has scored the least number of runs for India in Tests since 2020. But he is conveniently left out of discussion when it comes to middle-order being out of form. Pujara, Kohli and Rahane are struggling. But Pujara and Rahane are the ones under pressure.

— Venkata Krishna B (@venkatatweets) August 13, 2021

As much as I admire Pujara and Rahane, I do think they need a break and we need the likes of Gill / SKY / Vihari / Mayank to come in. #IndvsEng

— Nitin Mehta (@nittsmehta) August 13, 2021

Taking about the ongoing second Test match at Lords, India were in a comfortable position heading into the second day where they were completely poised at 274 runs at the loss of three wickets and the next day was expected to score 450+ runs but on the second day India could only score 90 runs and loss 7 wickets in process and could only manage to score 364 runs and it is purely because of middle order and lower order collapse that India went through in the middle. It will be interesting to see how India bowls from here on.