India batting coach Vikram Rathour on Sunday backed senior batters Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane to bounce back from a lean run of form. He also refused to give much hint on whether Shreyas Iyer's century and half-century in the respective innings of his debut Test have done enough to push either of Pujara or Rahane out of the playing eleven for the second Test in Mumbai.
"Of course, you want the top-order to contribute. But, as you mentioned, the cricketers who have played 80 and 90 Test matches, so they have the experience. To play that many games, they must have done well for us. I understand that both of them are going through a lean phase but they have played very, very important knocks in the past. We are pretty sure that they will bounce back and play pretty important knocks for the team in future as well," said Rathour while replying to a query about the lack of returns from the two senior cricketers.
In Test matches this year, Rahane has now scored 411 runs in 21 innings at an average of 19.57, with just two half-centuries. A lot was expected of him in the first Test but Rahane registered scores of 35 and 4, resulting in his Test career average going below 40.
