Abhimanyu Easwaran vs Ruturaj Gaikwad: Who should be India's backup opener for Australia tour?
India are scheduled to tour Australia next month for a five-match Test series starting November 22. Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal are set to be openers but who will be the third opener? Abhimanyu Easwaran or Ruturaj Gaikwad? Who is ahead in the pecking order? Here's a statistical comparison
Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal will open the innings for India in Australia. But who will be the backup opener on the tour? Shubman Gill and KL Rahul are the first names that come to mind but they have now settled down in the middle-order and it seems unlikely that their roles will be changed midway through the tour in case of injuries. In this case, only Abhimanyu Easwaran and Ruturaj Gaikwad are the two openers who are in sight in domestic cricket. Who is ahead in the pecking order? Let us analyse...
According to reports surfaced last week, Ruturaj Gaikwad is in the fray to be picked as a backup opener for the Australia tour. But Abhimanyu Easwaran has been performing extremely well and it is tough to ignore him this time. The opening batter has notched up three centuries in four first-class matches this season already. He smashed 191 runs in the first innings of the ongoing Irani Trophy for the Rest of India and scored 116 and 157* in the Duleep Trophy last month for India B.
Easwaran and Gaikwad's performance so far in domestic cricket this season
| Player | Innings | Runs | Average | 50s/100s | Best score |
| Abhimanyu Easwaran | 6 | 500 | 100 | 0/3 | 191 |
| Ruturaj Gaikwad | 7 | 241 | 34.43 | 2/0 | 62 |
On the contrary, Ruturaj Gaikwad was dismissed for just nine runs while opening the innings in the Irani Trophy and couldn't notch up a three-figure score either in the Duleep Trophy in six innings. If the reports of him being ahead to be picked as the backup opener for the Australia tour are true, then on what basis he is being selected?
Easwaran boasts of a champion first-class career
If the first-class careers of both Gaikwad and Easwaran are compared, the latter is way ahead thanks to his consistent performances. Easwaran has amassed 7506 runs in 167 innings in red-ball cricket so far at an impeccable average of 49.38 with 26 centuries and 29 fifties to his name.
First-class careers of Easwaran and Gaikwad
| Player | Matches (Innings) | Runs | Average | 50s/100s | Best Score |
| Abhimanyu Easwaran | 98 (167) | 7506 | 49.38 | 29/26 | 233 |
| Ruturaj Gaikwad | 32 (56) | 2282 | 42.26 | 12/6 | 195 |
On the other hand, Gaikwad has scored 2282 runs in 56 innings at an average of 42.26 with six centuries and 12 fifties to his credit. There is no denial of the talent that Ruturaj possesses but if performance in domestic cricket is the criteria to get picked in the Test team, then Easwaran has to be on the selectors' list for the Australia tour. Not only his first-class numbers are brilliant but his recent form has also been great and deserves a chance after grinding in the domestic circuit for more than a decade.