Mumbai: Ajinkya Rahane’s meticulous planning and execution of his training sessions during the COVID-19 induced break is helping him. That is why he has been able to have a successful outing on the ongoing tour of Australia, feels his coach Pravin Amre. Ajinkya Rahane’s dogged 112 at the MCG, according to head coach Ravi Shastri was the turning point of the game. It became , became the cornerstone of India’s famous win in the second Test in Melbourne.
Asked what message he gave Rahane before the tour, Amre said he just told the latter to ‘keep things simple’. “We don’t think about multiple tours at one time. We try to be in that one tour, (take) and try to give best in that basically. And that is what Ajinkya did,” Amre, himself a former India player said Friday.
Amre made a hundred in his debut Test in Durban. He said credit must be given to Rahane as he visualised what he was going to face in Australia.
“This year (2020) especially we have to give credit to him (Rahane). Most of the time as coaches, we plan the sessions and practice. But in these difficult times due to COVID-19, Rahane planned his own sessions. He worked hard, basically harder than before, because he used to practise two sessions instead of one,” Amre said.
“But those are the things… small small things he worked (on), he visualised this is going to be my preparation for this tough of Australia. And any success can’t come just like (that), we know preparation is important,” said Amre, who played in 11 Tests and 37 ODIs.
Rahane also received applause and praise for his captaincy in the second Test in the absence of Virat Kohli. Amre too lauded him for leading the team from the front.
“That credit (of captaincy) is for Ajinkya only because as a coach we never work on things like captaincy, we work mainly on the batting side of the game. When the opportunity came to lead, it is all his credit. The handling the situation wasn’t easy but credit goes to him because of his calm nature also. He is calm and composed and that is the reason he was successful as captain,” Amre pointed out.
“The small-small changes (he did), backing youngsters, getting (Ravichandran) Ashwin in first hour and using (Jasprit) Bumrah brilliantly. Because this is the Test match, we haven’t allowed their tail to wag and we made sure that Bumrah and (other) pace bowlers were fresh to bowl them and we never allowed to drag the match and rather never allowed them to get that partnership,” added Amre.