Ajinkya Rahane, India’s stand-in captain for the one-off Test against Afghanistan, has claimed that home team will not take their opponents lightly. Stating that ruthless aggression will be the way for the Indian side, Rahane maintained that the Afghans are a quality side with good bowlers.

“We are not going to take Afghanistan lightly. They have a decent team…bowlers (are good). As a Test team, we cannot take anyone for granted because cricket is a funny game. We want to go out there and be ruthless. Yes, we respect them as our opponents but it’s important for us to go out there and give more than our 100. We just need to be ruthless,” Rahane said while addressing reporters in Bangalore.

“We have had a couple of practice sessions in Bangalore and it was fantastic. Coming back from IPL, it’s important that we train our minds. Getting back to Test mode from T20 is about tuning our minds rather than focusing on skills. We are not going to take Afghanistan lightly,” Rahane stressed further.

Reacting to skipper Asghar Stanikzai’s comment that Afghan spinners are better than their Indian counterparts, Rahane refused to draw comparisons and said, “Every member will like to believe that their team is good. We all know the stats but we don’t want to focus on the stats. Ashwin, Jadeja and Kuldeep are experienced spinners. On a given day, it’s the mindset that makes a difference.”

Meanwhile, speaking about his preparations for the away tour to England, he said, “See, I don’t know what’s going to happen after this Test match. But yeah, I will definitely have a word with the selectors.”