Will Ajinkya Rahane be replaced for 5th Test against England? Batting coach Rathour answers

London, September 6: India batting coach Vikram Rathour said the stage has not come yet where the team management starts worrying about the form of Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane. Rahane has been battling severe criticism for his form of late and in the second innings of the ongoing Test, he was dismissed for a duck by pacer Chris Woakes.

"Not at this point. As I said earlier also, when you are playing cricket for a long time, you will have phases where you will not get runs. That is the time when we need to support the player as a team. As we saw with Pujara also, he has played a couple of important innings for us.

"We are hoping Ajinkya will get back into form and still play a major role in the Indian team's batting. I do not think we have arrived at that point where Rahane's form should become a concern," said Rathour during a virtual press conference.

"When you are playing such an important series like this one, playing in the conditions which are tough for batting and we are playing against such a disciplined bowling attack, which has been bowling so well, so as a batting unit, the technique is the last thing you should be thinking about.

I do not think we are looking at technique right now, there is time to look for it, I do not think mid-series or mid-game is the time for that," he added.

Earlier, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant, and Shardul Thakur all registered scores of more than 50 as India set a target of 368 for England on Day 4 of the ongoing fourth Test at the Oval on Sunday.

Umesh Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah also played cameos of 25 and 24 as India posted a score of 466 in the second innings, extending the lead to 367. For England, Chris Woakes returned with three wickets.

"Very impressive. As you said earlier, we all knew Shardul could bat, he is somebody who works really hard on his batting and I think the biggest asset is his temperament. I think the confidence he carries in his batting, the body language he has, very impressive.

"He is just in his fourth or fifth Test match and he has already played three important innings. That tells you he has the ability and he can play a big role in Indian cricket in the coming times," said Rathour.