Australia vs India 2018-19, Third Test: Will Virat Kohli spring a surprise and retain KL Rahul?

It seems all the cricket experts and fans have taken it for granted that the misfiring KL Rahul is certain to be dropped from the playing XI in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne starting on 26 December. The player to replace him is presumed to be Mayank Agarwal.

But could Virat Kohli spring a surprise and retain KL Rahul in the Boxing Day Test against Australia? Common sense says, he will not. But there are times in the past when Captains have gone against popular opinion. That has especially been the case with Captain Kohli many a time.

One does not have to look too much into the past to find such an instance. In the last Test itself at Perth, he decided to go with four fast bowlers and no spinner, when the conventional cricketing logic suggested that the team went with one, just as the Aussies did by keeping Nathan Lyon. As it turned out, it was a tactical blunder of the highest order.

In the South Africa series earlier this year, he had dropped India’s middle order mainstay Ajinkya Rahane in favour of Rohit Sharma, which again defied logic. Even though Rahane had not been in the best of form for some time, in the last few years, he has been one of India’s best batsmen, especially overseas. If at all, he struggles more at home than away. So, leaving him from playing XI at the start of an all-important overseas tour was baffling, to say the least.

Even more baffling was his decision to leave out Cheteshwar Pujara from India’s first Test against England in the five-match series earlier this year. The purported logic behind this was that Pujara had struggled during his county stint just before the series.

What was ironic was that Pujara had decided to play in the county to acclimatize with the English conditions so that he could be ready for the series there.

If he had decided not to take the proactive action of playing county cricket as preparation for the England series and had stayed back at home, he would have most certainly played in the first test of the series! The player Kohli had chosen to replace Pujara at that time was KL Rahul.

So, despite what the experts may have you believe, don’t be surprised if Captain Kohli springs yet another surprise and picks Rahul in the playing XI at Melbourne.