Kolkata Knight Riders would have secured the top position in the IPL points tally if it had won its fifth match in the IPL 2022 which was against Delhi Capitals. The match was played yesterday at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai and KKR chose to bowl first after winning the toss. DC got a great start as its star batsman David Warner (61) and Prithvi Shaw (51) produced the partnership of 93 runs for the first wicket and gave a pretty good platform to their team for making a big score. However, the DC middle order crumbled a little as skipper Rishabh Pant was got out for 27 and then it lost quick wickets in the form of Lalit Yadav (1) and Rovma Powell (08). Axar Patel (22) and Shardul Thakur (29) managed the situation in a good manner and in the end, DC posted a huge total of 215/5 on the score board.
In response, KKR had a bad start as its openers Ajinkya Rahane (8) and Venkatesh Iyer (18) got out early. Though the skipper Shreyas Iyer (54) tried to take things on the right track with the help of Nitish Rana (30) and Andre Russell (24), KKR lost the match by a big margin of 44 runs and this left KKR fans bitterly disappointed.
Soon the micro-blogging site Twitter was flooded with tweets in which fans expressed their annoyance and anger and majority of them suggested that out of form Ajinkya Rahane should be replaced with any other player such as Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, Aman Khan, Sheldon Jackson, Abhijeet Tomar, etc. while Rahane should be benched.
As far as the IPL 2022 is concerned, Ajinkya Rahane has scored 44, 9, 12, 7 and 8 in the five matches that he has played and in the match against DC, his strike rate was around 57 which is unacceptable for an opener, especially when the team is chasing a decent target of 216 runs.
Here are some selected reactions:
#1
https://twitter.com/the_faijan/status/1513389689851498498
#2
https://twitter.com/Heisenberg829/status/1513166013226840065
#3
Why are Delhi Capitals celebrating Ajinkya Rahane's wicket, so much overacting 😭 #KKRvDC pic.twitter.com/aoqYmFN051
— sohom (@AwaaraHoon) April 10, 2022
#4
Ajinkya Rahane #IPL2022:
M-5 , Runs-80 ,Avg-16 ,SR-100#ThankYouRahane
You will be missed,thanks for the wonderful memories 🤗 pic.twitter.com/ZLbMajQT7N— `ₐ (@EdenPark_6for28) April 10, 2022
#5
Rinku Singh has been there with KKR for a long time, he deserves chances now. He certainly cannot do worse than what Ajinkya Rahane has been doing!!
If not him, then Sheldon Jackson, Aman Khan, Abhijeet Tomar etc., they should be backed instead. pic.twitter.com/ZlcFCeSsKY
— sohom (@AwaaraHoon) April 10, 2022
#6
Wagon Wheel of Ajinkya Rahane ! 🫡 pic.twitter.com/MPF1R6RJke
— Abhishek Jaswal (@Radiator187) April 10, 2022
#7
KKR went from Shubman Gill to Ajinkya Rahane…
— Subhayan Chakraborty (@CricSubhayan) April 8, 2022
#8
Ajinkya Rahane weak zone pic.twitter.com/UcH1yDDrFY
— Hritam Ghosh 🇮🇳 (@ghosh_retam) April 10, 2022
#9
@ShreyasIyer15 brother if you want trophy of ipl 22.
Change the opener batmans Ajinkya rahane.
He has not good to open.
Place the super Batman Sam billing and Vyankatesh Iyer as opener.Ajinkya rahane is not hitter. He not like shubhaman gill or pruthvi Shaw.
— Prabhakar Marathe (@PrabhuMarathe) April 11, 2022
#10
@KKRiders Put Ajinkya Rahane on the bench and let Sunil Narine to do opening with V Iyer. Sunil can do big damages in poweplay & add another good hitter instead of Rahane who can bat well in middle order.
— Smart770 (@Kawalpr94963554) April 10, 2022
#11
As i said in all my KKR previews this season, Rahane’s best position in T20s is on bench. #KKRvDC
— Peeyush Sharma (@peeyushsharmaa) April 10, 2022
Ajinkya Rahane was already struggling with his form when he was bought by KKR in the mega-auction for the IPL 2022. He has also been dropped from the Indian test team because of his poor form and now there are good chances that he will be sitting on the bench in the KKR dug-out as well. What do you say?
