Former Australia white-ball captain Aaron Finch feels that India made the right call by including Ajinkya Rahane in the squad for World Test Championship Final. Rahane, who last played for India in January 2022, got his place back in India’s test squad after his impressive form in the ongoing season of Indian Premier League.
The Indian team struggled in the middle order in the last Test series against Australia as they missed the services of Shreyas Iyer (in the first two matches) and Rishabh Pant. The Asian Giants will face Australia again in the WTC final from June 7-11 in London.
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Rahane has played several crucial knocks for India on overseas soil as eight of his 12 Test centuries came outside of home.
However, a dip in form despite making a fantastic century against Australia in the 2020 Boxing Day Test and leading India to an unforgettable 2-1 Border-Gavaskar Trophy triumph, meant Rahane was last seen in the format in January 2022 against South Africa at Cape Town, where he had scores of 9 and 1.
After accumulating 136 runs in six innings as India lost the series 2-1 against Proteas, Rahane was left out of the Test squad for the home series against Sri Lanka.
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Finch believes that players like Rahane have plenty of experience for big matches like the WTC final and hold huge importance too.
“In big games, you want the option of players having plenty of experience. With Shreyas injured, and Rishabh also injured, which is very unfortunate, Rahane must be in the squad,” Finch told IANS.
After losing his place in the Test squad last year, Rahane has been performing consistently well in the domestic circuit, he scored 50 runs in five innings, including an unbeaten 207 for West Zone. Meanwhile, in the Ranji Trophy, Rahane was Mumbai’s leading run-scorer with 634 runs from seven matches, including a double-century against Hyderabad, and 191 against Assam.
“We all had seen how important he was in the Australia Test series (in 2020/21), when he took over the captaincy after Virat had come home. The calmness he brings, the experience and class he has, the overall demeanour with him in the squad becomes pretty important,” added Finch.
Talking about Australia’s squad, Finch said that Micthell Marsh has been included in the side as a backup for Cameron Green
“With Cameron Green playing in the IPL and there being an eight-day break between the IPL and the World Test Championship final, Mitch is probably in the squad as a cover. Then, when the Ashes come around, then there will be a decision to make,” he said.
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Finch signed off by expecting Australia to stick to the playing eleven which they have fielded on many occasions in the last two years.
“I am very sure Australia are going with a playing eleven which has played the majority of games throughout the last two years in the WTC cycle. I don’t think that sort of 11 or 12 will change unless there is an injury or are looking for a different combination in that middle-order,” he said.
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