Former India opener and presently a cricket analyst, Aakash Chopra, feels KL Rahul should be played as an opener alongside Shikhar Dhawan in the ODI series against Australia that begins from November 27 in Sydney. Aakash feels that Rahul has the ability to even score a double hundred in the format if he opens for India, a feat achieved by only three Indian players in the history of the format.
Rahul heads into the contest on the back of an impressive run in the IPL where he had finished as the Orange Cap winner with 670 runs in 14 games.
"This question does not have an easy answer because Rohit is not there. So, the question is who will be opening with Shikhar, who will be one of the openers in ODIs and T20Is. Do you see Mayank Agarwal opening, that is a big question, or will you see towards Sanju Samson or open with KL Rahul," Aakash said on his YouTube channel.
"My heart says that KL Rahul should open because the sort of player he is, he scores hundreds, and in my opinion, if he plays very well, he can even score a double hundred in ODIs."
Aakash then went on to predic what the playing XI for India might look like in ODI series against Australia.
"So this is how the team will look like Mayank with Shikhar, Kohli at No.3, Iyer at No.4, Rahul at No.5, Hardik at No.6, Jaddu at No.7 and after that four bowlers Chahal, Bumrah, Shami and I will go with T Natarajan."
The three-match ODI series will be followed by the T20Is comprising of as many matches before ending with the Test series.
