Had Shreyas Iyer been fit, Rahane wouldn’t have got place in the WTC Final squad: Irfan Pathan

Ajinkya Rahane was the talking point in India’s squad for the 2023 World Test Championship Final that was announced on Tuesday.
The 34-year-old marked his comeback into India’s red ball squad after a year. Former India seamer Irfan Pathan thinks it wouldn’t have happened had one of India’s middle order batter not been injured.
“Had Shreyas Iyer been fit then Rahane would not have got the place in the WTC Final side,” Pathan told Star Sports.
Rahane has been in career-best T20 form in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League and has amassed 209 runs in five innings at a season best strike rate of 199, including 11 maximums for the Chennai Super Kings.
“As far as the current form is concerned, he is looking in great touch. The format in which he is playing now is completely different but Rahane’s performance on foreign pitches has always been good and this has gone in his favour,” Pathan said.

In red-ball cricket, Rahane scored 634 runs in 7 matches in the 2022/2023 Ranji Trophy season at an average of 57 that included two marathon knocks of 191 and 204 aside from one half century.
India will play the one-off final to decide the winner of the 2021/23 World Test Championship cycle against Australia starting June 7.