2018 FIFA WC: This is what Rahane said about minnow Afghanistan

XtraTime Web Desk: This maybe Afghanistan’s first Test match but India’s stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane doesn’t want to take Afghanistan lightly as they have a decent bowling line up comprising off Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammed Nabi.

“We are not going to take Afghanistan lightly. They have a decent team…bowlers (are good).




“As a Test team, we cannot take anyone for granted because cricket is a funny game. We want to go out there and be ruthless. Yes, we respect them as our opponents but it’s important for us to go out there and give more than our 100. We just need to be ruthless,” Rahane said on the eve of the game.




Like Dinesh Karthik, Rahane also didn’t want to read too much into Afghan captain Ashgar Stanikzai’s statement about the visiting spinners being superior to the Indian trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav.

“Every member will like to believe that their team is good. We all know the stats but we don’t want to focus on the stats. Ashwin, Jadeja and Kuldeep are experienced spinners. On a given day, it’s the mindset that makes a difference,” Rahane said.




For Rahane, the last three days have been about tuning out of the IPL.

“We have had a couple of practice sessions in Bangalore and it was fantastic. Coming back from IPL, it’s important that we train our minds.




“Getting back to Test mode from T20 is about tuning our minds rather than focusing on skills. We are not going to take Afghanistan lightly.”