India’s Ajinkya Rahane on Saturday mocked Tim Paine and company when he issued a sarcastic reply to a fan’s question when he was asked, which Australian player sledged the most. The Indian stand-in skipper granted a chance to his fans to ask any question they wanted an answer to and some of them asked how he celebrated after the century at Melbourne, what does he prefer, Vada Pav or Missal Pav, etc.
The recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy saw Rahane’s India emerge victorious 2-1. The young Indian team, marred by injuries and absentees managed to beat Australia at the Gabba, where no team had beaten the Kangaroos since 1988. It was Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar, and the wall – Cheteshwar Pujara who played architects to the win.
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Since the team has arrived in India, they’ve seen huge support from the crowds. That welcomed the players with pomp and show. Experts also hailed the team’s victory, taking into consideration the circumstances, racial abuse, and injuries they had to face.
Rahane’s Question/Answer session on Instagram:
On Saturday, on Instagram, Ajinkya Rahane started the question/answer session to engage with his fans. The team is currently in Chennai prepping for a four-match Test series against Joe Root’s England.
One of his fans went on to ask Rahane a question about the Australian team sledging. In no time the regular vice-captain of the Indian test team sarcastically said ‘ all Aussies were polite.”
The Indian players did have a fair share of banters and sledge coming from the hosts. Tim Paine went on to warn Ravichandran Ashwin about the tough conditions at Gabba. While the off-spinner batted the Sydney test into a draw.
Marnus Labuschagne was seen funnily asking Shubman Gill. Who was his favourite Test player and also chit-chatting with Rohit Sharma? Matthew Wade and Rishabh Pant also shared a few heated moments in between them.
What’s next for Rahane and Team India:
Virat Kohli and company will be playing the first Test match in India post the COVID-19 pandemic, starting from the 5th of February. The inaugural test match will be played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The second Test will be played at the same venue followed by two at the Motera stadium in Ahmedabad. The newly renovated stadium will also host a day/night Test match. The full-fledged tour will be a long one consisting of four Test matches series followed by five T20Is and three ODIs.
Both the teams coming off important series victories will bank on this series. They will want to put in a good showing yet again. For a place in the finals of the World Test Championship at Lord’s in June. England whitewashed Sri Lanka 2-0 during their tour and India defeated Australia 2-1 during theirs.
The World Test Championship table sees India on the top spot with a 71.7 win percentage and England at the fourth position with 68.7%. Both the teams need to win by a margin of more than two Tests to book a ticket to London.
