For the first time in close to a decade, India will head into a test match without both Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara when they take on Sri Lanka in Mohali from Friday. Rohit Sharma’s first Test as India’s full-time captain will see the Indian middle-order without the combined experience of 177 Test matches.
Despite chief selector Chetan Sharma stressing that the door will remain open for Pujara and Rahane to come back into the test side, their axing from the test side will throw opportunities at youngsters. The home series against Sri Lanka, who are not the same force that they were a decade back, presents an opportunity for head coach Rahul Dravid and Rohit to test out new faces in the middle-order which has been a cause of concern in the recent past
Pujara and Rahane have been pillars of the Indian middle-order, scoring more than 10,000 runs between them but the recent dip in form and lack of consistency did hour India in South Africa earlier this year.
in Rahul Dravid and Cheteshwar Pujara, India had two technical sound batters for the No. 3 spots over the last 2 decades. Both of them were known for their relentless ability to ground down opposition attacks and make life easy for the star baiter at No. 4 – Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli.
IS VIHARI AN IDEAL REPLACEMENT FOR PUJARA?
If India wants to travel that route again, Hanuma Vihari seems to be a good choice for the No. 3 spot despite his inexperience at batting higher up the order in international cricket.
However, Vihari has scored the bulk of his runs in domestic cricket, playing at the No. 3 spot.
Last month, Vihari scored a fifty and a hundred against Chandigarh in Hyderabad’s win in their Ranji Trophy match. Vihari batted at No. 3, auditioning for the test role.
Former India batting coach Sanjay Bangar opined that Vihari could be the ideal replacement for Pujara at No. 3.
“I would like to see Hanuma Vihari at No. 3. He has an ideal game for No. 3 because you have to see off the new ball slightly so that the middle order is protected,” Bangar told Star Sports.
“He is a player who has scored big runs in domestic cricket for a long time. He was sitting after scoring more than 5000 runs, then played Test cricket, played some good knocks as well. After that, he had to miss out due to A number of reasons. The job Pujara did exceeding well for so many years, if someone can fill that position very well, I feel it is Vihari.”
While Vihari might get the nod to bat at No. 3 in Mohali, there are chances of Shubman Gill batting at that spot. Gill, who has opened for India has opened in all of his innings in 10 tests except the last one where he was forced to bat at No.3 after an injury concern against New Zealand last year.
IS GILL ONLY A BACK-UP OPENER?
Gill also has the experience of batting in the middle-order in domestic cricket and unlike Vihari, can be used as an enforced at the coveted spot, which would mean India move away a bit from their trademark No. 3 batteries.
Former India selector Devang Gandhi told PTI that Gill’s experience of handling the new ball as an opener will also help him at No. 3 and that the U19 World Cup star from 2018 was fast-tracked into the India A side with a middle-order sport in mind for him.
“Why I feel the team management might be inclined to try him at No.3 is because when we fast-tracked him into India A system, he had a double hundred in the middle-order against West Indies A in West Indies,” Gandhi said.
“Also having already opened in Tests, as No.3 he can also play the new ball well and start moving the game with his repertoire of strokes. You don’t want to get bogged down and with Gill, he can start pushing the envelope,” Gandhi explained.
It also remains to be seen what the team management thinks of Gil, who could turn out to be a future first-choice opener for India.
If Gil gets the no. 3 role, then it will be interesting to see whether Vihari goes down to bat at No. 6 or no. 5 as Shreyas Iyer is waiting in the wings to claim his spot in the team after hitting a hundred on debut against New Zealand in December.
IN-FORM IYER AT NO.5?
Iyer’s stunning form in the recently concluded T20I series against Sri Lanka should work in his favor to get a middle-order role, preferably at No. 5 or no. 6.
There is no doubt that Virat Kohli will continue batting at No. 4 and depending on the situation, Inda will use Rishabh Pant as a floater in the middle-order. Ravindra Jadeja’s improved batting performance also gives India an additional option. We have already seen Jadeja coming ahead of Rahane at No. 5 in England last year.
If India decide to play 7 batters, including Rishabh Pant, all 3 – Gill, Iyer and Vihari — might get an opportunity to be part of the XI.
When Rohit walks out for the toss with the team sheet on Friday, we will get a sneak peek of India’s potential future batting line-up. Rohit and Dravid have a happy headache, across all formats.
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