HIGHLIGHTS

• India will take on England in the 1st a 5-Test series from Wednesday
• Sunil Gavaskar backed KL Rahul to open with Rohit Sharma in the 1st Test
• India have lost Shubman Gill and Mayank Agarwal to injuries

Former captain and legendary batsman Sunil Gavaskar has backed KL Rahul for the opening spot during the 5-Test series against England, starting August 4 in Nottingham. India are in a spot of bother as Shubman Gill is ruled out of the series with an injury.

The visitors suffered a major blow earlier this week as second-choice opener Mayank Agarwal was ruled out of the first Test after picking up an injury during a training session. India have Abhimanyu Easwaran as the backup opener and the likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Prithvi Shaw have left for the UK from Colombo. However, the two players will not be available for the first Test.

Sunil Gavaskar pointed out that KL Rahul had hit a hundred during India’s last tour of England and the wicketkeeper-batsman also hit a hundred in their only practice match, a 3-day first-class game against a County Select XI last month.

“I think with KL Rahul scoring a hundred in the three-day game, he should be the person that they should consider to open the batting. Mayank Agarwal has had an outstanding season in 2019 but the last tour to Australia, he struggled a bit,” Gavaskar told the Press Trust of India.

“Whereas with a hundred under his belt, I think Rahul will have lots of confidence. He is the person I would look at opening the batting, not having Pujara going up the order. Also, don’t forget, the last Test match that Rahul played in England (in 2018), he got a hundred at The Oval. With that in mind, it might be a good idea to look at Rahul as an opener ahead of Mayank,” the batting great added.

India are likely to announce their playing XI on Tuesday when captain Virat Kohli addresses the pre-series press conference.

After losing the World Test Championship final to New Zealand in June, India will be looking to bounce back as they begin their next cycle of WTC against England in the upcoming series.

Pujara should trust his method in England too: Gavaskar

India will be looking for a good start but they have some concerns around their batting order and one of them is Cheteshwar Pujara’s approach. Pujara found success in Australia earlier this year but his inability to handle the moving ball was exposed in the WTC final.

However, Gavaskar backed the under-pressure Cheteshwar Pujara for his ability to hold the fort. Nonetheless, Gavaskar said the Indian team management can explore “someone else” if it feels his method is not working anymore.

Known for his rock-solid defence and textbook batting technique, Pujara received a lot of flak for not being able to put away the bad deliveries in recent years, the latest being the World Test Championship final against New Zealand.

“Pujara has got to the international level playing in a certain way, he has got to trust that method. In case, the team doesn’t trust that method, then they have to maybe look at bringing somebody else in,” Gavaskar said during a virtual con-call on Monday.

“But this is a method that’s worked for him, worked for India. He has held the fort at one end while the stroke-players at the other end have been at liberty to play their shots knowing that there is a solid player at one end.

“I think he’s got to believe in himself and carry on playing as he knows best because he has done a fantastic job for India over the years,” he added.