Former New Zealand seamer Simon Doull came to the defence Ajinkya Rahane after the Kolkata Knight Riders captain recently slammed questions over his batting strike rates in the IPL.
After a mixed outing in ’s season opener against wherein Rahane struggled outside the batting Powerplay, the veteran Mumbaikar was irked by questions following a subsquent failure against the . Taking questions after a second successive defeat last week, Rahane who fell for eight against , said: “The people who’re talking about me, probably (they’re) not watching the matches, or they’ve certain other targets, they don’t like me playing. The amount of success I got, I guess, they’re jealous of me. I’m happy they’re talking about me, negative or positive.”
Rahane found support from Doull who said the 37-year-old’s retort was not entirely misplaced. The Kiwi pundit also observed that Rahane’s record in recent seasons even stood ahead of his former India teammate Rohit Sharma, who is regarded as an aggressive batter in the format.
“His numbers in the last four years have not been that bad. He averages 30 and strikes at 148 over 30-odd games. People are talking about dropping him. It’s a better record than what Rohit has got in the last four years. It’s an equal record to Ishan Kishan in the last four years. You are not talking about dropping any of those blokes. Hence his frustration. But it comes down to the pressure from a captaincy point of view,” Doull said in a conversation on Cricbuzz.
Doull observed that the criticism over Rahane’s scoring rates were pinned heavily on KKR’s poor finish last season, a year after winning their third title under in 2024. Rahane endured an underwhelming season as the Knights finished on eighth in the standings.
“The criticism came with them finishing eighth last year and having a bad start this year. He is frustrated because they don’t have the tools in the toolbox. They are not doing their job and are not playing well as a group. It’s not all his fault,” said Doull.
