Ajinkya Rahane’s meticulous planning and execution of his training sessions during the Covid-19-induced break is helping him immensely on the ongoing tour of Australia, feels his coach Pravin Amre.

Rahane’s dogged 112, which according to head coach Ravi Shastri was the turning point, became the cornerstone of India’s famous win in the second Test in Melbourne.

Before the tour, Amre said he just told his fellow Mumbaikar to keep things simple.

“We don’t think about multiple tours at one time. We try to be in that one tour, (take) one tour at a time and try to give best in that basically. And that is what Ajinkya did,” Amre said.

Amre, who made a hundred in his debut Test in Durban, said credit must be given to Rahane as he visualised what he was going to face in Australia.

“This year (2020) specially we have to give credit to him because most of the time as coaches we plan the sessions and practise, but in this difficult time, he planned his own sessions, worked hard, basically harder than before, because he used to practise two sessions instead of one.

“But those are the things… small small things he worked (on), he visualised this is going to be my preparation for this tough of Australia. And any success can’t come just like (that), we know preparation is important,” said Amre, who played 11 Tests and 37 ODIs.

Rahane also received praise for his captaincy in the absence of Virat Kohli.

“That credit (of captaincy) is for Ajinkya only because as a coach we never work on things like captaincy, we work mainly on the batting. When the opportunity came to lead, it is all his credit. Handling the situation wasn’t easy but credit goes to him because of his calm nature also. He is calm and composed and that is the reason he was successful as captain,” he said.

“The small changes (he did), backing youngsters, getting (Ravichandran) Ashwin in the first hour and using (Jasprit) Bumrah brilliantly.

“We didn’t allow their tail to wag and we made sure that Bumrah and (other) pace bowlers were fresh to bowl at them and we never allowed to drag the match,” Amre said.