New Delhi: Predictably, the focus was on Ajinkya Rahane’s fourth failure in as many innings of the present series against Sri Lanka when India batting coach Sanjay Bangar faced the media at close of play on Saturday.
Despite India’s impressive 371/4 built around centuries from skipper Virat Kohli (156 not out) and opener Murali Vijay (155) and their 283-run third wicket partnership, it was Rahane’s wretched sequence of scores — 0, 4, 2 and 1 in the series — that held centrestage.
Bangar though downplayed the string of failures. “He will be disappointed in the manner he got out. He is somebody who works hard on his game like all players do,” Bangar said.
“Last match and this match, his shot selections would be hurting him definitely. But he is a quality player and his overseas record is phenomenal. He has the ability to bounce back very quickly. He is a quality player who has performed when the chips are down for the team.”
For Sri Lanka’s fast bowling coach Rumesh Ratnayake the late wickets would have come as a relief after a long and unrewarding day. “You have to bring in the portions of which they have done well and say if you have done those... Right then you continue the things which we did right,” Ratnayake said.
