Ajinkya Rahane has been included in India’s squad for the World Test Championship final against Australia to be played at the Oval. 34-year-old former captain Ajinkya was dropped from the Indian team at the end of the 2021-22 tour of South Africa because of the lean patch and serious dip in his avg. Following that he played the domestic matches and surprisingly Chennai Super Kings signed him for IPL 2023
Rahane topped the run charts for Mumbai in a mostly Ranji Trophy 2022-23 with 634 runs at an avg of 57.63 but failed to qualify for the knockouts.
Ajinkya Rahane – Anchor Role To Monstrous Hitter With Thundering Strike Rate
Following that, Rahane reinvented his innings and at the time of WTC final squad announcement, he had smashed 209 runs from five innings at a strike-rate of 199.05 which is his personal best and also being first in the list of best batting strike rate at IPL 2023. Does anyone believe this? Definitely not. This magical performance earned a big reward for Rahane with adding him in the WTC squad against Australia.
Indian Squad For WTC Final
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, & Jaydev Unadkat.
Indian WTC Squad Analysis
The top 4 batters are in good form. Rahane will make the middle-order stronger and will be the best choice since the absence of Shreyas Iyer. KS Bharat, despite a couple of slip-ups in that series, holds on to his spot as the team’s wicket keeper.
With the final set to be played in the early UK summer, the selectors not shown much interest in the fourth spinner option (Kuldeep Yadav) and gone for a seam-bowling all-rounder in the form of Shardul Thakur, who scored unforgettable two half-centuries in India’s win against England at Oval in 2021.
Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav and Jaydev Unadkat will be the four frontline fast bowlers. Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel will make the spin-bowling all-rounder department more stronger and could help India to make their batting more stronger
Missed Opportunity
India has not gone for Arshdeep Singh who will be an effective option for left arm pace instead selected Jayadev Unadkat. Arshdeep Singh is also playing in the county championship in June 2023. Also, India shall select some fast left arm bowlers as the net bowlers for tackling the Inswinging deliveries and outside off-stump deliveries. It will make the Indian batting lineup more stronger which may result in the victory.
