India tour of West Indies 2016: Vice-captaincy will improve my batting, says Rahane

Mumbai: Stylish batsman Ajinkya Rahane, who has been named the vice-captain for India’s upcoming tour of the West Indies, said he enjoys taking responsibilities and the new role will help him to improve his performance.

“I had toured the West Indies as part of India A around 3-4 years back, at that time the wickets were little slow. In international cricket, there will be different wickets. I have heard there is good bounce and pace in Barbados, Jamaica,” Rahane told PTI in an interaction in Mumbai.

“At the same time, I feel the wickets may be spin-friendly. We will get the idea of the wickets once we go there. But it is an exciting tour in the West Indies. We are going with a young Test team. We have done well recently and so we are looking forward to the tour,” he added.

Talking about his new role as a vice-captain, Rahane said: “As a vice-captain there will be responsibilities and I like to take responsibilities. When I toured Zimbabwe as a captain, I learned a lot from my team-mates, it was a good experience and we had won in Zimbabwe.

“There is certainly a sense of responsibility when going to West Indies. I enjoy taking responsibilities and I will learn new things from this team and it will be important how I go ahead step by step,” said Rahane, who was given the Ceat Special Award at a ceremony in Mumbai.

Asked if being a vice-captain would affect his batting, he said: “All these things are in the mind and how you think about such things is important and I don’t think that captaincy and vice-captaincy make any difference on batting.

“As a captain or a vice-captain, I can give my more than my best because there is responsibility. When you represent the country, your mindset is completely different. This will help to improve my performance,” he added.

Rahane also said that he will look to pick the brains of Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar before the West Indies tour in July-August.

“Whenever they (Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar) are available, I try and converse with them about each tours. Before going to West Indies, if I can meet them, I will ask them about their experience, conditions and what kind of cricket is played there. If they are available, I will like to speak to them,” he said.

Terming the BCCI’s decision to play day-night cricket in Duleep Trophy as “good”, Rahane said the board has taken the decision considering what will happen in the future.

“Playing Duleep Trophy under lights will give a better idea about how conditions change. Conditions in the afternoon are different than what it is in night and how much dew make a difference, all these factors can be gauged.”