File photo of KL Rahul.
With days to go for the opening day/night Test at the Adelaide Oval, both India and Australia are struggling to find their best opening pair to play under the lights.
While Australia are marred with injuries to David Warner and Will Pucovski, KL Rahul’s name has popped up for an opening role with Mayank Agarwal with Prithvi Shaw not firing in the warm-up games.
Former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra has now thrown his weight behind Rahul to open ahead of in-form Shubman Gill for the opening test on December 17 saying it will transform India’s weakness into a strength.
“There is the question surrounding India’s opening pair, as to who will open with Mayank Agarwal. I wouldn’t exactly call it a weakness, but it surely is a concern at this point. You can look at Shubman Gill, or even Prithvi Shaw for that matter, but I believe it should be KL Rahul to open the batting for India. If he can score runs given the kind of form he is in, this weakness can transform into a strength for India. I would want him to play,” Nehra said in a video on Cricbuzz.
He also pointed out Agarwal’s importance for the team while mentioning the impact he made at the last tour of Australia.
“Mayank Agarwal had played a couple of useful innings for India during the previous tour. With him KL Rahul makes a lot of sense. He hasn’t had the best of runs for India in Tests in the last year and a half. He’s been dropped too, but it’s an opportunity for Rahul,” Nehra said.
