'It is just one Test, two innings': Virat Kohli defends Ajinkya Rahane after scores of 1 and 0 in Chennai

India vs England: On being asked whether Rahane is out of form by one of the reporters during the post-match press conference, Kohli appeared slightly miffed before making it clear that Rahane is, after all, an impact player for India.

India captain Virat Kohli has come out in defence of Ajinkya Rahane, saying there is nothing wrong in the way he is batting and reiterated that he is one of India's most important Test batsmen. On being asked whether Rahane is out of form by one of the reporters during the post-match press conference, Kohli appeared slightly miffed before making it clear that Rahane is, after all, an impact player for India.

Ajinkya Rahane had a match to forget with the bat. (Getty Images)

"Look, if you're trying to dig something out, you're not going to get anything because there is nothing," Kohli said on being asked about Rahane's scores of 1 and 0 in the Chennai Test. "Ajinkya, and I've said this many a time in the past as well, that along with Pujara, he is our most important Test batsman and he's going to continue to be. We believe in his abilities; we have believed in his abilities for a long time. He's an impact player. If you talk about the MCG Test, he stood up and scored a hundred there when the team wanted it most."

Since his heroic century in Melbourne in December, 2020, Rahane has scores of 27*, 22, 4, 37, 24, and now 1 and 0 against England. In the first innings, Rahane fell to a brilliant one-handed catch by Joe Root at covers, whereas in the second dig, it was a brilliant reverse swinging ball from James Anderson that sent his off-stump flying. Kohli backed Rahane saying two innings should not be a criteria to determine whether a batsman is in form.

"You can look at the number of innings and what happens from there on, but the reality of the situation is we won the series in Australia," Kohli added. "Here's it's just one Test, two innings. Today, you can put that innings aside but in the first innings, he wanted to score a boundary. It was a brilliant catch from Joe that got rid of him. So if that goes to the boundary and he gets runs, we would not have been having this conversation. There are absolutely no issues, everyone is playing really well."