xtratime Logo

Xtra Time Web Desk : Once, Team India's middle order pillars, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane are now just a mere shadow of their glorious selves of the past. And that again showed up again in the first innings of the second Test match against Proteas where Pujara and Rahane got out for 3 and 0 respectively. And now former World cup winning Team India all rounder, Irfan Pathan has opened up on their off form.

In a recent Star Sports show, the 37 year old said, "We are talking about senior players here, they have played more than 60 Test matches and when you have played that amount of Test cricket for India, you need to average more than 40. And if you look at their averages in the last 3 years, it has been under 30 and that is highly disappointing. Surprising that India is still doing well despite Virat Kohli not scoring runs, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara in the same boat. They need to start performing consistently because guys are waiting in the wings. You could say that that the time is running out for Rahana and Pujara because a guy who scored a hundred on debut (Shreyas Iyer) is waiting. He is not playing this game because of a stomach bug but apart from that, he would be saying in his head that 'look I am ready'. That is why Pujara and Rahane need to score runs. If they don't do that, surely, time will be running out."

Now, with both Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane being under heavy scanner, it would be interesting to see how the Team management deals with the above two senior cricketers.