Ajinkya Rahane speaks about India’s determination to become No.1 in Tests

Ajinkya Rahane, the vice-captain of the Indian Test team feels confident going into the fourth match against the West Indies after victory in the third game. He spoke about dominating the upcoming Test which is to take place on Thursday. The batsman also spoke about the team’s long-term goal of becoming the number one team in the ICC Test rankings.

As quoted by the Press Trust of India, Rahane said, "Mood has been fantastic in the dressing room. Our goal is to play attacking cricket and dominate West Indies here. We have been playing good cricket and it is important to finish well on this tour.”

The team has already won against the hosts in the first and third matches in Antigua and St. Lucia and even in the second match at Jamaica, India remained unbeaten as they drew with the opposition.

"3-0 will be very good and our long-term goal is to be the no.1 Test team. But it is important to stay in the present moment. As Virat Kohli said earlier, we want to express ourselves in the middle. That means we want to dominate here again like we did in the first three Tests,” added the Indian Vice-Captain.

While talking about India’s possibility of topping the rankings, he further added, "We have dominated every single day in this series and dominated every single Test so far. So it is important to be in that process regularly and think about achieving that no.1 Test status as a team.”

Since Rohit Sharma was included in the team from the third game, the vice-captain was shifted from his position in the batting order. Regarding the change in his batting number, Rahane said that his latest position is not completely different and what is more important is that how he can adjust to the new position and assess the necessary conditions. He even said that the number doesn’t bother him much and he would bat in any position that the management wants him to.

Rahane said, "When Virat told me that I am going to bat at number four then I was trying to imagine what will be the situation once I go into bat. Sometimes you go in at 10/2 and sometimes you go at 150/2 or 200/2. So it is important to read the situation and play according to that and continue the momentum."

Even though Indian have won the series, Rahane pointed out that playing the West Indies is still going to be a tough task in the fourth Test, "As mentioned before, we think that West Indies is a pretty dangerous team in at home. We played some good cricket so far and have improved ourselves. Our bowling unit has been performing really well from the Sri Lanka tour and in India against South Africa as well.”