Who Will Open With Mayank Agarwal in First Two Tests vs Aussies?
Shastri & Kohli have a decision to make as to who opens the batting with Mayank Agarwal in the first two Tests.
With the now ready-to-go Rohit Sharma most likely to feature in the third and fourth Tests against Australia, presumably at the top of the order, some of Team India’s troubles get a solution. Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli however have a decision to make in terms of who opens the batting with Mayank Agarwal in the first two Tests – Adelaide and Melbourne.
Taking the shine off the new ball will be crucial for putting on a good show with the bat for India and the importance of staying in for long hours was evident when they won the series in 2018/19.
Will Kohli ask the new limited overs vice-captain KL Rahul to take on the responsibility or will one of the young guns in Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill step up to the plate or will Shikhar Dhawan be asked to stay back? Here’s a look at how the options stack up for India in terms of openers other than Mayank Agarwal.
Shubman Gill
The tall right hander is yet to make his Test debut but has shown plenty aptitude to hang in there and play big knocks in first class cricket. In the recently concluded IPL, he opened the innings for KKR and finished as their highest scorer in the season.
On the Australian tour, Gill played one ODI, scoring a very steady 33 and looking quite comfortable in the middle too. He however did not do well in the first warm-up game against Australia A. In the second, which began on 11 December in Sydney, he did his case for selection no harm with a fluent 43 at number 3 after Mayank Agarwal fell cheaply.
Gill was dismissed by an unplayable delivery from Cameron Green and did look more compact than Prithvi Shaw while they batted together. However, how much will not getting a big score influence the decision for India?
Prithvi Shaw
Unlike Gill, Shaw’s IPL wasn’t the greatest one at the top of the order and his performances in the warm-up games, in three innings, leaves him with plenty of work to do.
In his three knocks in Australia so far, he’s scored 0, 19 and a brisk 40. Shaw’s dismissals have shown he is prone to a lapse in concentration and the lack of form is not helping his case either. The youngster’s Test career had been dealt an early blow when he had to return home with injury on the previous tour to Australia.
He came back into the set up in New Zealand where he scored one half century in four innings and failed to get going in the other three.
KL Rahul
India’s new limited overs vice-captain has experience on his side but has not been in the squad since the West Indies series after the 2019 ODI World Cup.
When he has played, Rahul has more often than not opened the batting in Tests and has scored close to 2,000 runs from 33 games with five centuries.
On the previous tour of Australia, he played three Tests (Adelaide, Perth and Sydney) and managed to get to double figures only once. His overall numbers in Australia are not very impressive either with 187 runs from 9 innings with a century at Sydney in 2015.
Whoever walks out to bat with Mayank, the task at hand is a daunting one as Australia’s bowlers have promised to not hold back, even asking for pitches to be helpful to the hosts.
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