India vs Australia: 'No Pressure on Ajinkya Rahane After Virat Kohli Leaves'

Legendary batsman Sunil Gavaskar feels Ajinkya Rahane won't be under any pressure to lead Team India in the last three Tests of the upcoming series against Australia once regular skipper Virat Kohli leaves after the Adelaide match. After the culmination of the first Test which will be played under lights at the Adelaide Oval from Thursday, Kohli will return to India to be with his wife Anushka Sharma who is expecting their first child. Rahane, who is the vice-captain, is expected to lead the side in the remaining matches.

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"There is no real pressure on Ajinkya Rahane because both the times that he has led the team, he has won. He led against Australia at Dharamshala and India won. He led against Afghanistan and India won," Gavaskar said while speaking on Star Sports show Game Plan.

"So, as far as his captaincy is concerned, there is going to be no pressure because he knows he is at the moment, only the stand-in captain for the three Test matches," he added.

According to the former India captain, Rahane won't be thinking too much about the captaincy and would focus on his batting and along with Cheteshwar Pujara, would lead the Indian batting against the Aussies.

"...I don't think the fact about being a captain or carrying on as captain is going to be part of his thinking at all," said the 71-year-old.

"He will do the job as honestly as he plays his cricket, which means, as a batsman, he will go out there and try and let Pujara try and grind the opposition in and play few more shots maybe," he added.

Nathan Lyon believes the Australian bowling attack is older, wiser and better than it was two years ago when India won a test series Down Under for the first time.

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In fact, he thinks there's none better going into a four-test series rematch starting this week with a day-night match in Adelaide.

"In my eyes, we've got the best bowling attack in the world," the veteran Australian off-spinner said Monday. "We know what happened last series against India out here and how well they played.

"As bowlers, we've already spoken about that and we've come up with a few different plans … We're in such a better place compared with two years ago."

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