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Cricket Players'There's a lot of debate regarding Rahane's form': Ex-India cricketer picks playing XI for Centurion opener against SA
The veteran left out two big-name players as he picked his playing XI for India's Test series opener against South Africa on December 26 at Centurion.
Former Indian cricketer Wasim Jaffer left out two big-name players as he picked his playing XI for India's Test series opener against South Africa on December 26 at Centurion. Jaffer, who was part of India's 2010/11 Test squad that had drawn the series in South Africa, picked both Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer for the playing XI and left out Hanuma Vihari and veteran pacer Ishant Sharma.
The top order remained as expected with stand-in vice-captain KL Rahul opening with Mayank Agarwal and Cheteshwar Pujara and captain Virat Kohli filling in the next two spots. Jaffer then picked Rahane as his No.5 batsman despite the veteran's faltering career average which he plummeted to 39.01, his worst since February 2014. He argued that the former Test vice-captain, who averages over 50 in South African has the experience of playing in those conditions.
"KL and Mayank will open. Pujara at number three [and] Virat Kohli at four. I'll play Ajinkya at number five. There's a lot of debate regarding his form and between him Shreyas Iyer and Vihari. For the first Test, I'll definitely prefer Ajinkya because he has the experience, the skill. Yes, his recent form is debatable but he has scored runs in South Africa and knows the conditions well. And he brings a lot more to the table than just batting - [like leadership] when he was the captain [or] as a slip fielder," he told ESPNCricinfo.
Iyer made it as his No.6 batsman over Vihari owning to his phenomenal 105 and 65 in the Test series opener against new Zealand last month. Vihari failed to make the list despite his three half-centuries scores for India A in the three unofficial Tests in South Africa.
"I'll prefer Shreyas Iyer for number six because of his recent form and how he batted against New Zealand. I'll prefer him over Vihari. Vihari had a good series with India 'A', he made pretty good runs in similar conditions, but that was India 'A' series and not Tests. So I'll prefer somebody who scored runs in Tests," he explained.
He completed his batting line-up with Rishabh Pant as No.7 and Ashwin as the all-rounder and picked Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj as his pacers.
"Number seven would be Rishabh Pant, number eight would be Ashwin and nine ten eleven would be Bumrah, Shami and Mohammed Siraj."
When asked about India's chance of scripting history in South Africa, Jaffer felt it is a "golden opportunity" for the team to win their maiden Test series in the Rainbow Nation.
"I think even last time we had the team and the potential to win the series but perhaps the South African team was strong too because there was Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers, even Hashim Amla. So their batting is somewhat weak [this time] although their bowling is potent even if you compare with the last tour. But definitely the Indian team is quite strong even though Rohit and Ravindra Jadeja are not there. Even still this team is very strong and it's a golden opportunity to win the first series in South Africa."
