IND V AUS 2020: 'India has not handled him well'- Former selector Sanjay Jagdale defends Ajinkya Rahane

Former Indian cricketer and selector Sanjay Jagdale feels the Indian team hasn't handled Ajinkya Rahane well over the past few years. Rahane is set to lead India for the rest of the Test series against Australia after Virat Kohli returned home due to his paternity leave.

Ajinkya Rahane is not in the scheme of things in limited-overs cricket for India, and he is predominantly seen as a Test player now. Speaking to Indranil Basu on Sportskeeda Live, Jagdale felt India had created doubts in Rahane's mind by not backing him consistently.

On Ajinkya Rahane, Sanjay Jagdale said:

''I was very impressed when he captained against Australia in Dharamshala, and we won that match. He also brought in Kuldeep Yadav.''

''I feel India has not handled Ajinkya Rahane as well as they should have by dropping him often. He has performed well outside the subcontinent as he has hundred in South Africa, England, Australia & New Zealand and still after two bad test matches, you drop him. This is not confidence building. You create doubt in the mind of the player. You are bound to have some failures. Even Virat Kohli struggled in 2014 in England, but he came out and proved himself,'' Sanjay Jagdale added.

Ajinkya Rahane will have a significant role to play against Australia

The first six of the series comes off the bat of Ajinkya Rahane! The new ball isn't far away.#AUSvIND live: https://t.co/LGCJ7zSdrY pic.twitter.com/fq4aBgkbTr

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 17, 2020

Apart from his batting, Ajinkya Rahane will also have the added pressure of captaining the Indian side for three Test-matches. But Sunil Gavaskar feels the Mumbai batsman will not be under much pressure and will go about his captaincy as honestly as he goes about his batting.

In the last Border-Gavaskar series, where India won 2-1, Rahane played four Test matches and managed 217 runs at an average of 31 and a best score of 70.

The 32-year-old will certainly have to perform much better than that if India are to have any chance of staging a comeback in the ongoing series. Ajinkya Rahane will also have the task of lifting the team's morale after their demoralising loss in the Adelaide Test. The second Test starts on December 26 in Melbourne.