Bangalore: Stand-in India skipper Ajinkya Rahane stated here Wednesday that they need to have a ‘ruthless’ approach when India face rookies Afghanistan in the latter’s first Test here Thursday.
“We are not going to take Afghanistan lightly. They have a decent team…bowlers (are good),” said Rahane. “As a Test team, we cannot take anyone for granted because cricket is a funny game. Yes, we respect them as our opponents but it’s important to go out there and give more than our 100 per cent. We just need to be ruthless,” Rahane said.
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 captain will like to believe that their team are good. We all know the stats but we don’t want to focus on it. Ashwin, Jadeja and Kuldeep are experienced spinners. On a given day, it’s the mindset that makes a difference,” Rahane pointed out.
Meanwhile visiting team captain Asghar Stanikzai told reporters that they were banking on their four-day experience, whatever little they may have had to challenge India.
“All the three formats of the game are different from each other. But we have played four-day games as well and succeeded in the past. We would like to put to good use our four-day match experience in the historic Test match,” Stanikzai told reporters.
The Afghan skipper also asserted that his players are not nervous but are well prepared for the challenge. “What nerves?” he shot back when questioned on this issue.
We respect Afghanistan as opponents, but we will focus on being ruthless and giving more than our 100 per cent
Ajinkya Rahane
