KL Rahul will open, Mukund may sit out

COLOMBO: KL Rahul will open the innings for India in the second Test against Sri Lanka starting at the Sinhalese Sports Club from Thursday. The Bangalore batsman will be making a comeback to international cricket after a gap of four months (he last played in March this year).

“KL Rahul has been our established opener. I feel one of the openers will have to make way for Rahul,” said skipper Virat Kohli on Wednesday.

“What he has done for us in the last two years has been solid. And he deserves to come back and start afresh in Test cricket.”

Kohli faces a selection dilemma over the opening combination after both Shikhar Dhawan and Abhinav Mukund put up a good show in India’s big win against Sri Lanka in the opening Test at the Galle International Stadium last week.

Dhawan scored a blazing 190 and should get the nod to partner Rahul. Mukund, on the other hand, failed in the first innings but made amends with a polished 81 in the second, and smart fielding at the vital short-leg position.

However, Mukund is likely to miss out. “Rahul played the practice game (ahead of the series) and looked very solid,” said Kohli.

“It is very important to make him feel that this is his spot and it will not be changed because of unfortunate incidents that happened outside of the playing field or the injuries you can’t control. He really stuck it out in that (difficult) phase which was hard for him.”

Kohli said Rahul had proved his value and the team is backing him. Rahul has had a tough recent run as he underwent a shoulder surgery after the Australia series and missed the Indian Premier League (IPL), the ICC Champions Trophy and the West Indies tour.

He started with a half-century in the warm-up game in Sri Lanka but fell ill and didn’t travel with the team for the first Test at Galle. However, he looked good in the practice session on Tuesday, and had two long stints in the nets, which, ultimately, got him the nod.