'He'll obviously walk in': KL Rahul hopes to retain his spot in 2nd Test despite Rohit Sharma's return
With India captain Rohit Sharma likely to return in the second Test in Adelaide, the team management and the head coach have a lot of thinking to do with the playing XI given KL Rahul, who opened in the skipper's absence in the first Test, looked one of the most stable batters in both innings.
KL Rahul wasn't bothered about getting replaced by skipper Rohit Sharma in the second Test against Australia in Adelaide despite having registered an unputdownable performance in the Perth opener. Rahul, who was asked to bat at the top of the order out of nowhere after playing in the middle order for a long while, gave a good account of himself with the knock of 26 and 77. The knock in the first innings was special, in particular, given that no other batter in the team was able to resist Australia's pace trio.
Rohit was visible sitting in the Indian dressing room alongside head coach Gautam Gambhir on Monday, November 25. With him already in Australia, unless there is any injury concern, he will slot straight back in at the top, and Rahul will have to move. However, Rahul was not bothered about it but just hoped to get a chance.
"He will obviously walk in. He is the captain," Rahul told Channel 7 Cricket on the morning of Day 4 of the Perth Test.
"We will have to wait and see. I am sure the captain and the coach have it sorted in their heads. We are just focused on today. At the moment, we will try and get the seven wickets that are left and think about Adelaide when it comes and hopefully get a chance in Adelaide," Rahul added.
Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal with their 201-run opening stand in the second innings set up the game for India. Rahul and Jaiswal just tired the Australian bowlers out on Day 2 and there was no lookback from there on. India scored a massive 487/6 before declaring their second innings and add to that the slander lead of 46 in the first innings and Australia are chasing a massive target of 534 to win.
Rahul will hope that his grit and fight gets rewarded in the second Test. However, with Shubman Gill also set to return in Adelaide, the only option for India to slot all three of them in the same XI will be by leaving out Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel and playing Rahul at 6.