KL Rahul is likely to open alongside Abhimanyu Easwaran in India A’s second unofficial Test against Australia A, which begins in Melbourne on Thursday. With India likely to be without Rohit Sharma at the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Rahul and Easwaran look set for a head-to-head clash to be selected as Yashasvi Jaiswal’s opening partner for the first Test in Perth, which begins on 22 November.
ESPNcricinfo understands that Rahul and Dhruv Jurel, who left for Australia ahead of the rest of the Test team to gain playing time playing for India A, will take part in the four-day game in Melbourne. With Rahul partnering Abhimanyu at the top, captain Ruturaj Gaikwad, who opened in the first unofficial Test in Mackay, will drop down to the middle order, with Jurel taking the goalkeeping gloves off Ishan Kishan.
India captain Rohit’s participation in the first leg of the Australia tour is in doubt due to personal reasons. There is still some uncertainty around this, and on Sunday, at the end of the 3-0 home series loss to New Zealand, he said he “wasn’t quite sure if I’m going to [Perth]”.
If Rohit is not available, the Indian team management will have to make an interesting decision at the top of the order. Abhimanyu was called up to the Test squad for the tour of Australia as the designated third opener, and at the time of selection had scored centuries in each of his four most recent first-class games. In all first-class
cricket, Abhimanyu has 27 centuries in 100 matches and an average of 49.40.
Meanwhile, Rahul was originally a middle-order candidate. Since the 2023-24 tour of South Africa, Rahul has batted exclusively in the middle order in Test cricket, scoring 339 runs in 10 innings at an average of 37.66, higher than his career figure of 33.87 in 53 Tests, including a century at Centurion and two fifties.
Rahul, however, has plenty of experience facing the new ball abroad and is one of the only two Asian openers to have scored Test centuries in England, South Africa and Australia. Those high points, however, came against the backdrop of an unspectacular overall record as an opener: 2,551 runs in 75 innings at 34.94.
If Rahul returns to the top of the order, it will be something of a repeat of the 2021 England tour, in which he began having declared his intention to bat in the middle order. However, injuries to Shubman Gill and Mayank Agarwal created a vacancy at the top, which Rahul filled over the course of a successful tour that included a century from a memorable victory at Lord’s.
By the start of the 2024-25 home season, Rahul’s career had gone through several more turns and he had now established himself as India’s first choice No. 6. He was left out of the first XI after the first Test against New Zealand. however, with Sarfaraz Khan, who had replaced the injured Gill in India’s XI, moving above him in the pecking order with 150 in the second innings. Five visits to the area during India’s home season gave Rahul scores of 16, 22*, 68, 0 and 12.
Sarfaraz, for his part, does not start the tour of Australia safely in the XI. After that 150, he failed to get past 19 in four innings against New Zealand, and had never played Test cricket outside India before. Given the fast and lively conditions expected in Perth, India may still be undecided on whether to pick Sarfaraz at No. 6, or play Rahul there – in which case Abhimanyu opens if Rohit is absent – or, in a move by left field, pick both Jurel and Rishabh Pant and play one of them as a specialist batsman.
With Pant unavailable while recovering from knee injuries sustained in his car accident in December 2022, Jurel made his Test debut in the home series against England earlier this year and impressed both behind and in front of the stumps. . He scored 190 runs in four innings at an average of 63.33, and his innings of 90 and 39* in a tense fourth Test victory at Ranchi earned him the Player of the Match award.
Jurel has not played a Test since Pant’s return but has cemented his place as India’s reserve goalkeeper and an exciting future prospect.
Given all the possible permutations in Perth, the selectors and team management will probably pay as much attention to Jurel’s displays in Melbourne with the bat and gloves as they do to those of Rahul and Abhimanyu against the new ball.
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