India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane has revealed that he became “a bit emotional” after scoring a match-winning century against West Indies in the first Test in Antigua. Ajinkya Rahane scored his 10th Test century after a gap of 2 years and called it “special”. Rahane contributed with 81 and 102 in the two innings he played which helped India defeat the West Indies by a huge margin of 318 runs.

An opportunity to do something special

“I thought 10th hundred was really special. I wasn’t thinking about any particular celebration, it came out automatically. I was a little bit emotional,” Rahane told the reporters during the press conference before the second and final Test at Sabina Park. Before the start of the Test series, Rahane’s form was a matter of concern as he had not scored a century in his previous 17 Test matches.

“It took me two years to get that 10th hundred. As I said the process always matters to me a lot. Preparations before each and every series is very important. I was actually doing that throughout the two years, and so 10th hundred was really special,” he said. In the first innings, the team was in a spot of bother when they lost 3 wickets with only 25 runs scored. Rahane came into bat with the job of rescuing the team. He said that he wasn't thinking about personal milestones and saw it as an opportunity to do something special for the team.

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Vihari performance to help him to consolidate his place in the playing XI  

He also praised the all-rounder batsman Hanuma Vihari who scored 93 runs in the second innings and has strengthened the middle-order. “Vihari did very well in India A tours and he did really well in the domestic circuit. So it’s good that players who actually did consistently well over a period of time in domestic cricket are doing well at the international level,” he said. Rahane also spoke about Rohit Sharma missing the first Test match. He said, “At the same time, Rohit is also a quality player, a special player - it's hard to see him miss out on a Test match.”

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Indian team to look for a whitewash

India will look to win the second Test match which starts on August 30 and win the series. Indian bowlers were in great form in the first match and will look to repeat their heroics. Ishant Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah took 14 wickets between themselves and Ravindra Jadeja contributed with a half-century and 2 wickets in the match. India has 60 Test Championship points and will look to get another 60 points by defeating the West Indies.

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