India skipper Virat Kohli backed Ajinkya Rahane despite the veteran batsman's dry spell and absence from Monday's thumping second Test win over New Zealand, promising his team will support past performers.
Rahane, who led the hosts in the drawn opening Test and managed scores of just 35 and four, missed the final game due to a hamstring niggle as Kohli returned from a break to take his place. The 33-year-old has averaged under 20 in 12 matches this year and his injury pull-out was judged by Indian media as a respectable way to drop him in Mumbai.
“I can’t judge his form. No one can judge it. Only the individual knows what he's going through,” Kohli told reporters.
“We need to back them in these moments, especially when they have done well in the past. We don't have this environment where we have our players asking ‘what happens now?”
Kohli said the team was unaffected by outside criticism of individual performances.
“We support everybody in the side, Ajinkya or anyone. We don't take decisions based on what happens outside,” he added.
