Ajinkya Rahane had a fair idea that a question about his indifferent form would pop up and he was ready to meet the challenging delivery head on with a never-seen-before aggression.
Skipper Virat Kohli, after the 227-run defeat to England in the opening Test, had vehemently defended Rahane, who hasn't scored too many runs before or after the Melbourne Test against Australia where his hundred enabled India to draw the series level.
The form came up again on the eve of the second Test against England and the man in question was ready to tackle the issue head on.
“See we are playing at home after two years. Our last home series, was against South Africa. If you take (the scores of that series) out, you will find something over there,” Rahane answered in third person with a deadpan expression referring to his scores of 59 and 115 against the Proteas in that 2019 series.
“It’s all about the team and not the individual and my focus is how can I contribute for the team. If you take out the last 10-15 Test matches, you will see some runs over there.
“I don’t need to think about what’s happening on the outside,” the vice-captain, who has scored around 1000 runs in his last 15 long form game, said.
It was a different Rahane, someone who was not ready to take a backward step when faced with difficult questions.
When a scribe asked if the drooping shoulders and negative body language in the first Test were due to a change in captaincy, he was far from amused.
“There are moments when you don’t have that energy but that doesn’t mean that it has happened because of a change in captaincy. As I have said earlier, Virat is our captain and will remain our captain.
“If you are trying to dig in and fine some ‘masala’ (controversy), unfortunately you will not get it. Look, body language can be a bit down at times and the wicket was such in the first 2 days, it could be because of that. There could be many reasons.”