Adelaide, Dec 5 Ahead of the day-night second Test against Australia at the Adelaide Oval, skipper Rohit Sharma confirmed he will bat in the middle order, with the team stick to its opening combination of KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
In the absence of Rohit due to him being on paternity leave for the birth of his second child in Mumbai, Rahul (77) joined forces with Jaiswal (161) to put up a stand of 201 runs in the second innings, which helped India set the base for a mammoth 295-run win in Perth. "KL will open (in Adelaide). The way he batted and his partnership with Jaiswal was instrumental in that first test win.
"The way he has batted outside India, he deserves it. I will bat somewhere in the middle. It was a fairly simple decision. Personally, it wasn’t easy but for the team, it was an easy decision to make," said Rohit in the pre-match press conference.
Further talking about Rahul, who made 26 off 74 balls in the first innings and looked at ease as an opener in Perth, Rohit said him being comfortable alongside Jaiswal gave him a signal that they should be retained for opening in the pink-ball game in Adelaide. "I was at home with my newborn in my arms, and I was watching how KL batted. It was brilliant to watch. I felt that there's no need to change that now.”
"Maybe in the future, things will be different. I don't know. Based on what has happened and what KL Rahul has shown outside of India, he probably deserves that place at this point in time. It is something that has brought us success in the first Test.
"You have that one big partnership with Jaiswal on the other side, and it probably won us the Test match. When you come here, in a place like Perth, and you get 500 runs or so, it’s such a massive tick in the box," he elaborated.
In the first Test at Perth, Washington Sundar’s selection ahead of spin-bowling stalwarts like Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja came as a surprise, though the off-spin all-rounder still did well. Rohit added Ashwin and Jadeja will have a role to play in the five-match series, which India are currently leading 1-0.
"Washington came to Australia on the last tour, got crucial runs and took wickets. Unfortunately, he got injured. He is a solid all-rounder. The team gets confident with players like him. I just hope he stays injury-free. I only see his graph going up from here.
"I wasn’t there personally to break the news to Ashwin and Jadeja that they won’t be playing at Perth. The management went with the best team they thought that suited that pitch. These two will play a role in the rest of the series. They have been massive to India’s record in the past. We shall look at the pitches and decide," he concluded.
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