Ajinkya Rahane dropped from India-South Africa 1st Test: Twitter reactions

Rahane dropped from IND-SA 1st Test: Twitter reactions

India tour of South Africa commenced on Friday. South Africa won the toss, elected to bat and Bhuvneshwar Kumar destroyed their top order. Virat Kohli dropped a bombshell at the toss. The team sheet did not have vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane in the XI. Rahane has been India’s best batsman overseas, but form has eluded him in the recent past.

Rahane, who led India to the Dharamsala Test win last year, had a miserable run with the red ball. He managed 49, 0, 45 and 0 for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy and flopped against Sri Lanka. While his colleagues feasted on the Lankan bowling, Rahane managed only 17 runs from 5 innings.

2017 was Rahane’s worst year as a batsman. He averaged 34.62. However, Rahane’s overseas average reads 53.44 and it propels to 69.66 in South Africa.

Twitterati were clearly unhappy with Rahane’s exclusion.

https://twitter.com/BCCI_Men/status/949193845614379008

https://twitter.com/rahil4798/status/949191731941031936

https://twitter.com/Kahaanify/status/949190479098265601

https://twitter.com/BeingMsdian25/status/949191785053499392

https://twitter.com/SpiceBoxofEarth/status/949205655885352960

https://twitter.com/BeingFlicked/status/949191404034519040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Rohit Sharma’s inclusion may raise eyebrows, but he has been in exceptional form across formats. He scored 217 runs against Sri Lanka from 3 innings. In the last tour, he registered his third ODI double-hundred and the joint-fastest T20I hundred.