Indian vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane says he analysed his batting a lot after twin failures in the first two Tests against England, the effort resulting in a characteristically gritty 81 at Trent Bridge.
The Capitals, which finished third last year, will start their campaign against Kings XI Punjab on Sunday and both Ponting and skipper Shreyas Iyer agreed that R Ashwin and Rahane have been great additions to the young side with their experience.
IMAGES from the Ranji Trophy final played between Mumbai and Vidarbha at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday donated a month's salary over and above Prime Minister Narendra Modi's directive to all BJP MPs to contribute Rs one crore from MPLAD funds in the country's fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
Mumbai play their first game of the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy season against Baroda in Vadodara from December 9.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni or Rishabh Pant? Whose knock did you enjoy most?
Punjab, starting the penultimate day on 73/3 and needing 144 more runs, crumbled under pressure from Sindhu's relentless spin and Jayant Yadav's precise off-spin (3/35 in 10.4 overs), collapsing well before lunch and handing Haryana their second outright win in four matches.
Jasprit Bumrah will have to squeeze every ounce of energy from his already overworked body, while Ajinkya Rahane will hope to get one final chance to save his international career when India take on England in the fifth and final Test, chasing a historic series win, in Manchester on Friday.
Defending champions Chennai Super Kings will look to set their house in order and get back to winning ways when they face an upbeat yet unpredictable Punjab Kings for the second time in a row in the IPL match in Dharamsala on Sunday.
'The point is that if as a player I have always played for the team, then I deserve chances more consistently. That's the least I am asking.'
Ajinkya Rahane, who has been axed for the upcoming three-match T20 series against Australia, on Monday said that he respects the decision taken by the team management and the selectors.
India's Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane said criticism that the team does not play the short-ball well does not hold merit.
Ajinkya Rahane, who has not scored a hundred in more than two years, got back among the runs with a patient innings of 54.
A round-up of the Ranji Trophy matches played on Saturday.
'His role as an opener will be equally crucial. He is the guy you want to play in Australia. I remember ODI series in 2008 and he was new but did quite well on Australian pitches. He will be raring to go after the injury.'
India's captain Ajinkya Rahane on Monday said the racial abuse faced by his teammates Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj during the third Test against Australia in Sydney is not at all acceptable and should not happen anywhere in the world.
With a "no-vacancy" sign plastered on India's top order and his utility in the middle questioned by his own captain, Ajinkya Rahane suddenly finds his consistency with the bat means very little. The 27-year-old Mumbai batsman has forced his way into the final 15 for next month's World Twenty20 on home soil but is unlikely to play a major role in the hosts' bid for a second 20-over World title under Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The left-right combination of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma have locked up the opening slots, followed by batting mainstay Virat Kohli and limited-overs specialist Suresh Raina. An industrious accumulator in a lineup teeming with swashbuckling power-hitters, Rahane can only hope for a middle order slot but Dhoni, forthright as ever, has virtually dismissed the possibility. Dhoni insists Rahane, as evident from his consistent performance in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 competition, is at his best as an opener and lacks the muscle power to excel as a lower-order slogger.
'We don't want to confuse him, he is in a happy space and he knows whenever someone is not going through a good phase or there is an injury, he is there, right at the door steps waiting to play a game whenever the team requires him to'
Who do you think should be part of India's playing XI for the second Test against Bangladesh?
'We had two good practice sessions, actually four, but two with pink ball -- one during the day and one under lights. It was actually exciting'
'Ajinkya has 12 centuries and more than 4,000 runs in Test cricket. So he knows his game and he has gone through such kind of bad phases before as well.'
However, Pujara is confident that Rahane is only one innings away from regaining his lost touch.
Rahane spoke about how he channelised his energies during his two-month stay in Southampton, playing for the Hampshire.
'Rahane has so much experience, he shared them with us, offered us tips on how to bat'
BCCI president Anurag Thakur and India players Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Kedar Jadhav and Manish Pandey visited the 124 Sikh Battalion Territorial Army headquarter in New Delhi. After interacting with the jawans, the players also played cricket with the kids of army officers. "I thoroughly enjoyed playing a knock with the children. It is great to see the enthusiasm of these kids and I would like to wish them best of luck for all their future endeavors," Rohit Sharma said.
The focus will be firmly on India's Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane and young prodigy Prithvi Shaw when Mumbai take on Karnataka in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group B game, beginning in Mumbai on Friday. Both Rahane and Shaw failed with the bat in the last Ranji Trophy game against Railways which the domestic giants lost by 10 wickets inside two and half days.
CSK have a man behind stumps telling them what's working: Hardik Pandya pats MS Dhoni
Gautam Gambhir believes that the onus will be on stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane to lead the fightback against Australia
The India Test vice-captain has scored just three hundreds and eight fifties from 48 innings since 2016.
Openers KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock hit fifties as LSG trounced CSK by eight wickets.
Nathan Lyon has already started his homework on rising batting sensation Yashasvi Jaiswal
Rahul Dravid's tenure as India Head Coach, which ended gloriously with the T20 World Cup triumph in Barbados on Saturday, will remain a case study on how to be stately and understated at the same time in modern-day cricket coaching.
Vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane will lead India in the first Test against New Zealand in Kanpur, starting November 25, before regular skipper Virat Kohli returns to take charge from the second Test in Mumbai.
CSK can ill-afford to take Punjab Kings lightly, who are coming in to this match after chasing down a world record total of 262 against KKR.
He believes that being overlooked for the limited overs leg of the UK tour will give him more time to do his homework for the five-match Test series against England, starting on August 1.
In need of a victory to firm-up their position in the IPL play-offs race, Chennai Super Kings have the heavy task of nullifying a deeply hurt and frustrated Rajasthan Royals in Chennai on Sunday.
Ajinkya Rahane's wretched form will not be a big concern for the South Africa-bound Indian team, feels former captain Sourav Ganguly.
Ajinkya Rahane wants to take on the New Zealand pace battery with more intent in the second Test. He has a foolproof strategy, which includes countering the awkward angles which became a nightmare for Indian batsmen during the first Test at the Basin Reserve.
A few bruised egos will eye redemption when India square off against Australia in the second Test in Melbourne from Saturday, ready to bounce back in skipper Ajinkya Rahane's hour of reckoning after their batting debacle in the series opener in Adelaide.
'It'll be very much a battle again between the very good pace bowling attacks of both sides and how well the top order players of both sides can deal with the ball that will bounce, seam and probably swing a little bit more in the day-night game in Adelaide.'
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