IND vs AUS 1st Test: The all-hyped India vs Australia test series is just a couple of days away, but the dilemma for the Indian side to pick the opening partner of Yashasvi Jaiswal is still up. Here, in this post, we will walk you through the possible opening options for India for the IND vs AUS 1st Test.
The Perth Stadium is all set to host the first test of the five-match test series between India and Australia. The market of predictions and expectations is on the heat and between all that, the Indian team dealt a blow of Shubman Gill getting ruled out of the first test due to the fracture in his finger.
Yashasvi Jaiswal is holding one end and the concerns are for his partner. Rohit Sharma, the Indian skipper is currently not available for the first test so BCCI was pretty aware of the situation and added a couple of opening options in the squad.
One of the options is Abhimanyu Easwaran, KL Rahul is the other one, and last but not least, the team can land a surprising partner of Jaiswal.
Let’s take a look at all the options available one by one:
Jaiswal’s Partner to Open in the IND vs AUS 1st Test
1- Abhimanyu Easwaran: A Dehradun-born brilliant young talent with skyscrapers of runs and stats. His bat has mounted some big runs in first-class cricket and he has got his chance here in Australia. His First Class average is just below 50 with the highest score of 233.
He has scored three big hundreds in his last eight innings, but his form has been lost in his last four innings in Australia. In two warm-up matches between India A and Australia A, his scores were 7 & 12, and 0 & 17 which is raising concerns. However, he is most likely to open with Jaiswal in the IND vs AUS 1st Test.
2- KL Rahul: In the press conference before the tour, Gambhir indicated about this option as well when he said, “He’s kept wickets in One-Day format as well. So, imagine how many countries have players like KL who can actually open the batting and can bat at No. 6 as well? I feel that if need be, he can do the job for us. Especially if Rohit is not available for the first Test.”
Keeping these things aside, KL Rahul doesn’t have that good numbers in Australia. In the five matches he has played in Australia, his batting average is 20 which includes a century as well. However, he is a quality player and he can handle the swinging ball at the top, which makes him a good contender to open.
3- Rishabh Pant: The chances are negative for this selection but Rishabh Pant has opened the innings for India in the test format in the past and he can do it in Australia as well. But, the head coach Gautam Gambhir likes a left-hand-right-hand combination so this may be his least likely choice to open with.
4- Virat Kohli: No team would want to put their best weapon in the frontline when the opponent is Australia so this option is also not likely to happen but Gautam Gambhir may consider him as an option.
Nevertheless, Abhimanyu Easwaran is most likely to be the opening partner of Yashasvi Jaiswal and India’s playing11 could be:
India’s Probable Playing11
Abhimanyu Easwaran, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravi Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah (C), Siraj, Akash Deep.
