LONDON: Playing fearless cricket is top of the agenda for Ajinkya Rahane as he urged India’s batsmen to express themselves against New Zealand in the ICC World Test Championship Final.
The 33-year-old right-hander has been India’s highest run-scorer in the inaugural WTC, scoring 1,095 runs at 43.80 during the cycle and notching three centuries and six half-centuries.
“We just want to take this as just another game, play it as just another game. What is important for us is to start well, we know New Zealand are a very good team,” said Rahane.
“We don’t want to take them lightly and as a team, we have been doing so well and we just want to continue what we’ve been doing over the last two years, play one day, one session at a time.”
But he will need to be at his very best in Southampton against New Zealand’s greatest WTC wicket-taker in the form of Tim Southee in one of the most hotly-anticipated battles.
And while a place in cricketing history is up for grabs for the victorious team in Southampton, Rahane insists India’s focus is only on playing their natural game rather than the high stakes.
“Our planning, our strategies will be completely different from when we last played against England here in Southampton [in 2018], the plan was different that time.
“We just want to take this as just another game. We don’t want to put ourselves under pressure especially playing a Test match after a long time now,” he added.
India’s last Test in Southampton ended in a 60-run defeat to England in 2018.
