Team India is enjoying its dominance over West Indies in the ongoing two-match Test series. The Rohit Sharma-led side began its 2023-25 World Test Championship cycle on a winning note after thrashing the hosts by an innings and 141 runs in the first game in Dominica. In the first innings of the second Test, India posted a whopping total of 438. While the likes of Virat Kohli and Yashasvi Jaiswal have shone in the series so far, it has been a poor outing for Ajinkya Rahane, who scored 3 runs in his only innings in the first Test and followed it with another poor knock of 8 runs.
Rahane was included back into the Indian team after a successful IPL 2023 with Chennai Super Kings. Following which he gave a brilliant performance with scores of 89 and 46 in the World Test Championship final against Australia in June. However in the ongoing series, Rahane has failed to live up to the expectations.
The 35-year-old batter has been receiving a lot of criticism for his flop show but former India batter Wasim Jaffer backed him and stated that Rahane needs to show some consistency as he is a "good captaincy option" after Rohit Sharma.
"Rahane will have to show consistency in his game, which has been his problem even though he has played 80-90 Tests (84). Consistency has been an issue, he will have to overcome it because India have a good captaincy option in him after Rohit Sharma is done. Rahane will have to make runs, and then everything else will follow," Jaffer said on Jio Cinema.
Jaffer also stated that Rahane could have become India's Test captain after 2-1 win over Australia in the 2021 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
"If his form was great from that Australia series after that 36 all out, the way he led, scored a hundred in Melbourne... had his form remained the same, he would have been the next Test captain. But he lost his form and got dropped," said the former India batter.
"However, he reinvented himself in the IPL and got a chance in the WTC final. He was appointed the vice-captain as well, because the Indian selectors see a good leader in him. He still has age on his side but he needs to score runs, if he does not then he will find it difficult," he added.