India vs West Indies 2017: Ajinkya Rahane ready to bat at any position

After winning the Man-of-the-Series award in the recently concluded One-Day International (ODI) series here, Ajinkya Rahane says he is willing to bat anywhere in the batting line-up.

Rahane, who opened the batting for India in the absence of the rested Rohit Sharma, said he has experience of batting at different positions and will be ready to bat even at No.4 should the team management want him to do that.

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“See, what is going to happen in the future we don’t know. This series will give me a lot of confidence especially for the ODI and shorter format. If the team management thinks I should bat at No.4 or at No.1 and 2 then I will always be giving my 100 percent on that. I am not sure what is going to happen in the future, but I always like to give my best in ODI and T20 formats. I am looking forward to doing well consistently in ODI format,” said Rahane while speaking to the media ahead of the one-off T20I game to be held here at the Sabina Park on Sunday.

“I actually batted at No.4. Even at World Cup I batted at No.4, scored against South Africa, so I know how to handle batting at Nos.3, 4 and 5. It is not a big issue but we’ll have to wait and watch and see what’s going to happen.”

Rahane has not been a regular in the ODI squad and says that he is glad to make full use of the opportunity.

It's been a hard fought series and glad that we won. Great to see all of us perform as one strong unit #IndvWI #winning @BCCI pic.twitter.com/IujMANA8HW

— ajinkyarahane88 (@ajinkyarahane88) July 7, 2017

“This series was really important for me as I got a chance after some time. I didn’t play the ICC Champions Trophy. We came here. Virat told me you are going to play all the games. So actually I was looking forward to that. I didn’t want to put pressure on myself. I just wanted to enjoy myself in the middle. I took my time. When we came here, we had a couple of practice sessions and even in England I was batting well (in the nets). So I just had to make it count as I mentioned but importantly I wanted to express myself with the bat.”

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Talking about the mental switch to the T20I game from the ODIs, Rahane said, “We play so many formats, it is completely a mental switch. Talking about the wicket and their team, I feel if we focus on our game and on our abilities then I don’t think we need to focus on anything else. Right now, guys are focusing on playing tomorrow. We should see what are the areas we should focus on.”

Rahane also said that the Indian team won’t be overawed by the return of stars to the West Indies squad.

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Asked if the return of Chris Gayle, who is playing for West Indies after a gap of 16 months, will worry them, he said, “Chris Gayle is not the only player in the side. They have got 11 players. We are not focusing on Chris Gayle. Our team is important and as I mentioned earlier, we are thinking about our strengths rather than about their strategies, their positives or their teams. Yes, we all respect Chris Gayle, he is a dangerous player. On a given day, he can change the game for their team. Right now, it is important to focus on our game and back our team in the middle.”