Ajinkya Rahane: India’s hero of the first innings Ajinkya Rahane played down injury concerns while batting in the second innings during the WTC final against Australia. The right-hand batter copped a blow on his right hand’s index finger off a Pat Cummins bouncer on second day of the Test. Rahane sensed some discomfort and called on physios. Despite that blow, the CSK batter continued batting and made a fighting 89 in the first innings.
Rahane is also optimistic that the injury in his index finger won’t affect his batting in the second innings.
“Don’t think it will affect (my) batting (in India’s second innings),” Rahane told the broadcaster at the end of the third day’s play.
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Ajinkya Rahane: Shardul Thakur confident of Rahane batting in the second innings
Shardul Thakur, who stitched a valuable 109-run stand with Rahane also spoke about the injury to the senior batter and said, ‘he will definitely bat in the second innings.’ “He (Rahane) got a bad blow on his finger. It does not look too bad, it is being assessed. He did not go out in the field as it would have been risky and he had already fractured the same finger previously. He will definitely bat.”
Australia in dominant position in the WTC Final at Oval
Despite a fighting innings from both Rahane and Thakur, India are still backfoot in the game. They have conceded a huge lead of 173 runs and still have not bowled Australia out. At the end of day three, Australia added 123 runs for the loss of four wickets. They lead by 296 runs and will look to bat India out of the Test by adding more runs.
Rahane admitted India are behind the game but sounded confident about playing well in the first hour of day four.
“Australia slightly ahead in the game. For us, it’s important to be in the moment, play session by session. First one hour will be crucial tomorrow. We know funny things can happen. Jadeja bowled really well footmarks helped him against the left-hander. Still feel wicket will help seam bowlers,” he added.
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