Forgotten India Star’s ‘Perfectly-Timed’ Instagram Clip Goes Viral Amid ’46 All Out’ Bengaluru Horror: ‘Ready To Strike’

India incurred a horror outing in Bengaluru on Day 2 of the opening Test match against New Zealand as the hosts were skittled for just 46 in the first innings.

It was their lowest-ever score at home and third-lowest overall in Test history. New Zealand later wrapped up the day with a 134-run lead in the opening innings of the match for the loss of three wickets.

As many as five Indian batters were dismissed for a duck, which included former captain Virat Kohli and middle-order batters Sarfaraz Khan and KL Rahul. The only time India ever suffered a similar fate against the Kiwis was in 1999, in Multan. The Rohit Sharma-led side, however, escaped equalling their lowest tally of ducks (6) in an innings, which they had recorded against England in 2014 and earlier this year against South Africa.

Amid India’s horror day out in Bengaluru, former India captain Ajinkya Rahane, who no longer stands in the reckoning for a place in the national squad, posted a clip on Instagram of his practice session ahead of Mumbai’s second match in the ongoing Ranji Trophy season, against Maharashtra at the MCA Cricket Ground in Mumbai.

Rahane captioned it: “Ready to strike!” But fans on social media could not stop wondering about the timing of the post. “Bro knows the timing to post,” said one of the users, while another exclaimed: “Rahane bhai saw the opportunity and posted immediately.” Meanwhile, another user reckoned that it was a target at BCCI for not considering him for the Indian team. The post read: “Trolling BCCI, Rahane deserve chance.” Many on the post also felt that India should call back Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara ahead of the Border-Gavaskar series in Australia later this year.

Rohit Sharma explains ‘misjudged’ call

India made a bizarre move on Thursday morning after winning the toss as they not only opted to bat first against New Zealand, but also picked three spinners and just two fast bowlers for the Chinnaswamy track that experienced relentless rain for over 48 hours.

Admitting that it was wrong on his part to replace Akash Deep with Kuldeep Yadav, Rohit, speaking to the media after Day 2, said, “Look, we felt there was not a lot of grass on the pitch. We thought it’ll do whatever it has to do in the first couple of sessions and then it’s going to take turn as the game goes on. That is how [it is] whenever we played in India, the first session is always critical and then the wicket tends to settle down and then the spinners come into play.

“As I said, there was not much grass, so we felt the reason to add Kuldeep was because he’s bowled on flat pitches and he’s taken wickets, so we expected the pitch to be a little flatter than what it turned out to be. So clearly a misjudgement of the pitch.”