Captaincy is all about trusting your instincts: Ajinkya Rahane

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Australia are leading by just two runs but have only four wickets in hand to post a challenging total for the Indian team to chase, and once again the limelight was on Rahane's captaincy as he marshalled his troops well to keep the pressure going on the Australian batsmen, who are yet to find their form this series. Discussing the aspect of his captaincy and the fact that he did not look alien to the situation of leading the side, Rahane said that trusting one’s gut feeling holds the key for clarity of decision making.

"Captaincy is all about backing your instinct. You’ve got to back your gut feeling. Sometimes it goes your way but sometimes it doesn't," Rahane told Fox Cricket after the end of the second day's play at the MCG.

India closed in on a fantastic victory at the MCG in the Boxing Day Test on the back of their bowlers’ fantastic day out against the Australian batting line up. Rahane credited the bowlers for their relentless approach while defending the lead of 131 runs they secured in the first innings.

"Credit to the bowlers, they bowled in the right areas,” he said about his bowling line up.

Before bowlers came back to run riots amongst the host team's batsmen, Ajinkya Rahane, the batsman, had to step up and he played possibly the innings of his career. However, Rahane still rates his century at the Lord’s on the tour of England in 2014 as the best of his career.

Rahane was run out early on day three and it led to the exposure of India's long tail which could not wag for a long period of time. The visiting team squandered the advantage they could have had bowling on the third-day pitch with an even bigger lead. Rahane was answering Jadeja’s call when he was found short of the crease in pursuit of a quick single but showed a sign of being a great leader by going to the southpaw and consoling him to regain focus after his dismissal. Rahane would have known what Jadeja might be feeling after running him out, as he too was the cause of Virat Kohli’s run out in the Adelaide Test.

“I initially thought I was in. I told Jadeja not to worry about my run out and to keep doing well. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it big (after the Kohli run out). I said sorry to him after the day. It happens in cricket,” Rahane added in his quick interaction with Fox Cricket.

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Ponting praises Rahane for exemplary leadership after Adelaide debacle

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting praised stand-in India captain Ajinky Rahane for picking up the pieces from the Adelaide bashing and leading with example at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. "I think he's done a great job to pick up the pieces from Adelaide with this team, lead really well in the field yesterday and you can see he's playing like a captain now as well," Ponting was quoted as saying to cricket.com.au. Saying that Rahane wants to put out a statement and also inspire his troops to make a comeback in regular skipper Virat Kohli’s absence, Ponting said, "He wants to play that captain's knock; he wants to get a hundred in Virat's absence and do the best thing he can to try and drag his country and his team back into this series." Comparing the calmness and the patience that he showed on the crease instead of getting rattled, the Punter termed his knock as being ‘Pujara’ like. "He's almost played a (Cheteshwar) Pujara-like innings. No thrills, he's hit very few boundaries but he's just continually backing his defense and trying to wear the Australian bowlers down,” said the 46-year-old. Rahane,32, completed his 12th Test century, but Australian fielders and his fortune were with him as well as he was dropped twice while one catch went directly to first slip, but there was no first slip. However, Punter believes that the Australian bowlers needed to make him drive more by keeping the covers out. "I think the Australians haven't made him cover drive enough. I think they've been a little bit short and they've plugged that cover region,” he said. "That nick that we saw that went between Paine and Smith, I think that could have been covered with another slip in place and leave the cover area open," Ponting added.