It is a very tricky and important take of the selectors regarding who will open the innings in the absence of Rohit Sharma. KL Rahul is a prominent option for India in the absence of Rohit in the first match as he has opened the innings in the past as well.
The Rohit Sharma-led team enter the series with great expectations placed upon them after experiencing a devastating 0-3 defeat on their home soil against New Zealand. After the defeat, their path to reaching the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) has become significantly tougher as they must secure victories in four Test matches against Australia to earn a spot in the WTC final independently of other outcomes. In addition to the unfortunate circumstance, it appears that Captain Rohit Sharma may be absent for the first Test.
However, KL Rahul is going through a very rough patch and was dropped from the team after the first test. He was added in the unofficial test against Australia A and made headlines because of his brain fade moment in the 2nd innings. He failed to score in this match as well. KL and Dhruv Jurel were added to the India A team for the 2nd test to gain some momentum ahead of BGT, where Jurel capitalized his chance with fifties in both the innings.
Since 2022, Rahul has scored 514 runs in Tests from 21 innings at an average of 25.7, having registered three half-centuries and a century.
Moreover, his numbers as an opener in Australia also don’t paint a good picture for the 32-year-old. He scored just 183 runs from seven innings at an average of 26.14 and a strike rate of 45.29 with one century.
Nevertheless, Easwaran did not manage to make a strong impact with his performance against Australia A. He only scored 36 runs across two matches, even enduring a duck in the second game. Easwaran secured his spot on the team after scoring four back-to-back centuries in all four matches of the ongoing domestic season. However, he was unable to meet expectations during his time in Australia.