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Legendary opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar has stated that he will opt for KL Rahul to open the innings alongside Rohit Sharma in the first Test match against England at Trent Bridge. Initially, the team management was inclined to go in with Mayank Agarwal as a replacement for the injured Shubman Gill in the upcoming series.
But Mayank Agarwal suffered a concussion on Monday (August 2) during a net session that has ruled him out of the first Test. Now India needs to find an opening partner for Rohit Sharma. KL Rahul, Hanuma Vihari, Abhimanyu Easwaran, and Cheteshwar Pujara are the likely options available for the team management.
Sunil Gavaskar has backed Rahul to do the job for India in the top order as he has been in good form in recent times. Hours before Mayank Agarwal was ruled out, Gavaskar told the Hindustan Times:
"With KL Rahul scoring a hundred in the three-day game that we played, he should be the one partnering Rohit Sharma. Mayank Agarwal has had an outstanding season in 2019 but in the last series in Australia, he struggled a bit. On the other hand, Rahul would be high on confidence after scoring that hundred. He is someone I would look at for opening the batting and not Pujara to go up the order."
“Don’t forget, the last Test match that Rahul played in England, he got a hundred so with that in mind, we might look at Rahul as an opener ahead of Mayank," Sunil Gavaskar said.
KL Rahul has played 54 innings as an opener in Test cricket so far and scored 1915 runs at an average of 36.83. The Karnataka batsman also has five centuries and 10 half-centuries in the longest format of the game.
Openers are the ones who lay the foundation for middle-order: Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar went on to explain the significance of openers in Test cricket. He opined that openers do all the hard yards which allows the middle-order batsman to cash in at the later stages.
“The openers play a very important role because they lay the foundation. I’m not talking about the Sehwags, I’m talking about the conventional openers. They pave the way, convert a broken road into a highway for the Ferraris and Lamborghinis to come and drive. Openers are the ones who do all the hard work benefits of which the No. 4, 5, 6 are able to reap.”
