Ajinkya Rahane may not have too many answers for bowlers in recent times, but he surely does know how to dismiss queries around his inconsistent form.
The India vice-captain, who at last came out of a lengthy lean patch with a crucial 61 in the second innings of the Lord's Test, reacted with sarcasm when asked about him being perennially under scrutiny.
"I am happy people are talking about me. I always believe people will talk about important people so I am not too concerned about that. It is all about contribution to the team," he said.
Rahane, for the record, had mustered just two half-centuries in 16 Test innings since he scored a match-winning ton against Australia at the MCG last year.
"Everything motivates me. Playing for country motivates me. I am not bothered about criticism as I mentioned. People only criticise important people and they are criticising me. I only focus on controllables," he added on a more serious note.
Batting with their backs to the wall, Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara had shrugged off poor form to put up an important century stand on Day 4 of the Lord's Test. "Cheteshwar and I have been playing for a long time. We know how to handle pressure and we know how to handle certain situations. We just want to contribute to the team and we are doing it," Rahane said.
Asked to go into details of his partnership with Pujara, Rahane said, "It was all about hanging in there, thinking about the small targets and then build on it from there. We always talk about Cheteshwar that he always plays slow. That innings was important for us.
"He batted almost 200-plus balls (206) even though he got 40-odd (45). He told me to back my game, I told him to back his own game. Whatever the methods, I thought the communication was really good. We wanted to build one good partnership."
