The former cricketer Ravi Shastri feels that KL Rahul should open for India in the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Time has not been given to captain Rohit Sharma in Australia. Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir finds himself in a conundrum that must be resolved before the day-night Test on Friday in Adelaide. The opening trouble began after KL Rahul made the Australian bowlers sweat as he swaggered on to a difficult Perth Test wicket.
When Shastri went on to say that India should carry on with Rahul at the opening slot, he was very direct in what he referred to. Personally for Shastri carrying the same setup will be the way to go.
“I think he (Rahul) should carry on (opening) because Rohit has not had much time since he’s come here (Australia),” Shastri said in his ICC Review.
“Very quickly he had to play that Prime Minister’s XI game. But I would say carry on with the same setup. He [Rohit] can bat at five or six,” he added.
In addition to Rohit, India will welcome back Shubman Gill, who missed the Perth Test with a hand injury. There was no time to waste as he set about his business and raced to fifty in the Prime Minister’s XI clash.
“The fitness of Shubman Gill makes this team even stronger. I would say in the last 10-15 years, all the sides that have come to Australia, you get the feeling that this is one of the strongest batting line-ups purely because of the experience. Also, Shubman is fit and bats at three. Rohit is fit and comes back and plays instead of (Devdutt) Padikkal and (Dhruv) Jurel,” he added.
Australia squad (for second Test): Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster
India squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.
