Rahul the main option in India’s opening gambit
Unless they do a Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and start with a pinch-hitter, who partners skipper Rohit Sharma to open India’s innings could be a point of interest in the T20 series against Sri Lanka starting Wednesday.
Given the composition of this squad, KL Rahul, who has a T20I century, looks a frontrunner and his getting into the nets early on Tuesday afternoon did nothing to dispel the notion at the Barabati Stadium. But Rahul hasn’t been considered for that role since the T20 against Sri Lanka last September where he made 24 off 18 balls with three fours.
Rahul was also Virat Kohli’s opening partner in the threematch series against England in January-February. He made 8, 71 and 22. And he missed IPL 2017 with a shoulder injury.
Against Australia and New Zealand it was the Rohit-Shikhar Dhawan combination that opened. Rahul was not in the squad against Australia and didn’t play against New Zealand. He hasn’t played the shorter version since the limited-overs series in Sri Lanka.
TEST CONSISTENCY
Rahul began the current series against Sri Lanka with a first-ball duck. However, he has had a good run in Tests, having notched up nine half-centuries in his last 12 innings. Team combinations aren’t usually revealed at the prematch media conference but during the blink-and-you-miss session Dinesh Karthik had before training, he ruled himself out of opening the innings.
“Where I will bat depends on the situation and the number of overs. I could go up and down a little but I see myself at No 4 or No 5,” said Karthik. The wicketkeeper batsman who doesn’t wear the gloves as MS Dhoni plays last opened for India in the World T20 in 2010 and didn’t in IPL 2017.
Neither has Shreyas Iyer or Manish Pandey; the former skipped training but the latter went in early at the nets.
On India having three to choose from as openers in Tests, Virat Kohli had said in Kolkata: “That situation has been there for some time and the balances wings every now and then with one of them missing out. It becomes very difficult to pick two when all three are playing so well.” The context then was having D haw an, M ur ali Vi jay and Rahul as options to open. It will be interesting to see whether, with an eye on the future, India are looking to get three to tango for the slot in T20s as well. Or make that four because Kohli too has batted at the top of the order for India and Royal Challengers Bangalore.