AUS vs IND: Can India bet on KL Rahul in Rohit Sharma’s absence for 1st Test?

India have several questions ahead of the upcoming all-important five-match Test series against Australia beginning from November 22. The Rohit Sharma-led side is coming into the series with a lot riding on their shoulders as they suffered a humiliating 0-3 whitewash at home against New Zealand.
Following the defeat, their chances to make it to the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) has taken a major hit as they need to win four Test matches against Australia to qualify to the WTC final without depending on other results. To add to the misery, captain Rohit Sharma is likely to miss the first Test due to personal reasons.
In his absence, India will desperately need to find an appropriate replacement for their skipper. The one man whom the management can possibly bank on is KL Rahul as the star batter has opened in Australia in the past as well. However, Rahul has been going through a rough patch in recent times which also saw him being dropped from the Test team for the last two Tests against New Zealand after Shubman Gill recovered from his neck strain.
Rahul was recently added to the India A squad for the second unofficial Test against Australia. However, the horrendous form continued for the batter as he edged Scott Boland in the first innings after scoring just 4 and later got dismissed for 10 in the second innings in a bizarre fashion with the ball going between his legs.
Since 2022, Rahul has scored 514 runs in Tests from 12 matches (21 innings) at an average of 25.7 having registered three half-centuries and a century. Hence, Rahul has looked completely out of sorts during his stay at the crease in recent times and could turn out to be a huge gamble.
Moreover, his numbers as an opener in Australia also don’t paint a good picture with the 32-year-old having 183 runs to his name from four matches (seven innings) at an average of 26.14 and a strike rate of 45.29 with one century.
Apart from KL, the other guy to bank upon for team India is Abhimanyu Easwaran who’s been plundering runs in domestic cricket. However, even Easwaran failed to impress with his performances against Australia A as he managed to score just 36 runs from two matches including a duck in the second game. Easwaran earned his place in the team on the back of four consecutive centuries in the ongoing domestic season in as many matches but failed to live up to his reputation in Australia.
Hence, Easwaran’s poor outings have further left India in a fix with the only other option available being Shubman Gill’s promotion at the top of the order. The 25-year-old began his Test career in Australia during the previous series in 2020-21 and scored 259 runs from three matches at an average of 51.80 with two half-centuries to his name.
Gill scored a magnificent 91 on Day 5 of the fourth Test at the Gabba in Brisbane helping the team chase down a massive target of 328 runs. However, the youngster asked the team management to drop down to number three in 2023 and has held the position since then. The youngster is having a golden run this year with 806 runs to his name from ten matches at an average of 47.41 with three hundreds and as many fifties.
Hence, it remains to be seen whether the team management will be willing to tinker with Gill’s batting position as the youngster has sealed his spot at number three. The options are aplenty for India but the head coach Gautam Gambhir needs to arrive at a solution quickly as India don’t play any more practice matches after the ongoing second match against Australia A.
However, Gambhir recently backed Rahul after his failures in the first Test vs New Zealand which could well shift the balance in his favour and the former vice-captain could well be given one final chance to prove his worth.
“Social media does not matter one bit. What the team management and leadership group thinks is very important. He is batting really well, had a decent knock in Kanpur (against Bangladesh on a difficult wicket. I am sure he would be knowing that he has to score big runs and he has capability of scoring runs. That’s why he has been backed by the team…Ultimately, everyone is judged. International cricket is all about being judged,” Gambhir said in the press conference before the second Test vs New Zealand in Pune.
The India head coach backed the star batter again in the press conference before leaving for Australia calling him a rare talent in the cricketing world hailing his ability to bat anywhere for the team.
“I think, and that is the quality of a man that he can actually bat at the top of the order. He can bat at number three, and he can actually bat at number six as well. So you need quite a lot of talent to be doing these kind of jobs as well. And 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 number six as well. So I feel that, if needed be, I think he can do the job for us, especially if it is not available for the first test match, yeah,” said Gambhir in the press conference.