Opening battle between Rahul and Easwaran, winner likely to take Rohit’s spot

IND A vs AUS A: As Rohit Sharma will be not playing 1st Test, it is an opportunity for KL Rahul and Abhimanyu Easwaran to book their spot.

As the second unofficial Test between IND A and AUS A begins in Melbourne, early on Thursday, all eyes will only be on India batter KL Rahul was added into this team at the last minute. After all, this will be his audition to replace “unavailable” skipper Rohit Sharma for the 1st Test in Perth from November 22.

IND A vs AUS A, 2nd Unofficial Test

Whether India wins this match or not won’t concern many, but Rahul, who started out as a Test opener, will have to flourish in testing conditions. Testing because, a certain Scott Boland is waiting for him in the wings, and has already fired a warning to him. If Rahul manages to impress, not only will he book his place in the 1st Test, but also Boxing Day Test in Melbourne from December 26; in short this match is expected him to give him much-needed practice.

KL Rahul vs Abhimanyu Easwaran for Top Spot

Rahul, on his part has a lot to prove himself, who was kicked out of the team after the 1st IND vs NZ Test in Bengaluru, where he managed to score 12 runs. He in fact, has a poor record Down Under. Having played 5 Tests in Australia since 2014, he has only scored 187 runs, at an average of 20, that also includes a ton too.

Apart from that, there will be Jurel in the team too, who even if performs well, won’t be a part of the IND XI come the Test series. But given the history from last tour, he needs to be ready as well, in case of an injury. There would also be likes of Abhimanyu Easwaran, at the top of the order, who if manages to impress, might just get his maiden India cap, and pip KL Rahul. Although he has proved he is a much better batter in the longer format, but Rahul seems to have the trust of the management.

Mind you, Easwaran has five hundreds in his last eight FC matches. So, in a nutshell, this is very well an Easwaran vs Rahul battle for one spot in Rohit Sharma‘s absence. Having said that, a little bit of the focus will also be on the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan and Devdutt Padikkal, with the latter two doing fairly well in the first match.

IND A Probable XI

Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Sai Sudharsan, KL Rahul, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Manav Suthar, Navdeep Saini, Prasidh Krishna, Mukesh Kumar.