Rahane: Patient bowlers the key to England success

India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane has said that he doesn’t feel India have played badly in England but that the hosts have been more consistent.

The tourists top-order have outperformed their counterparts but the England bowlers have done a better job of rounding off the India tail.

Rahane feels this is down to the patience of the England bowlers.

Speaking ahead of the fifth Test at the Oval – a match which is an interesting one when viewing the Paddy Power Cricket odds – Rahane said: “In Test cricket you have to win each and every session.

“You look to win each and every session. I don’t think we did anything wrong, but England played better cricket. They were consistent in their bowling, they bowled with patience.

“When you travel abroad, every session you have to give 100%. Many times there are tough moments. In those tough moments, how you capitalise and how you capture them is very important.

“In my opinion England did that very nicely. When they were in a tough situation, the way their Nos. 7, 8, 9 batted, their contributions were very important. Even their bowling, even though we were batting well, they showed patience in their bowling. That is the only reason they are 3-1.”

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Rahane lauded the focus of skipper Virat Kohli throughout the series. Kohli will almost certainly end the series as the leading runscorer despite India going into the final Test trailing 3-1.

He said of his skipper: “As far as Virat’s batting is concerned, the way he conducted himself, the way he showed the consistency… There were a lot of people talking about him, whether he would perform in England or not, but in my opinion his focus was solely on playing cricket and he did not pay attention to anything else.

“We all should learn from him, about how your focus should be on what you need to pay attention to. As a team-mate and as our captain, we have a lot to learn from him and we have learned a lot from him.”

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