KL Rahul, one of the two new additions to India A squad for the second and final unofficial Test against Australia A at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, is set to open the innings alongside Abhimanyu Easwaran. Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad, who opened the innings in the series opener, is likely to slide down in the middle order for the second Test starting Thursday, November 7.
"The Men’s Selection Committee have added Mr KL Rahul and Mr Dhruv Jurel to the India A squad for the second first-class game against Australia A starting on Thursday at the MCG, Melbourne," the BCCI said in an official release on the eve of the clash.
With captain Rohit Sharma unsure of his availability at the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Rahul and Easwaran are probably set for a straight face-off with each other for the vacant opener's spot for the opening Test in Perth from November 22, as per ESPNCricinfo. Yashasvi Jaiswal will open the innings and even though Easwaran was picked as the third opener, Rahul's sudden promotion is a surprise given that the captain and the team management didn't want to touch his spot of No 6 three weeks ago in Bengaluru.
Rahul after playing the series opener against New Zealand at his home ground, didn't feature in the rest of the series. Similarly, Jurel, who didn't play any of the five Tests during the home season, is also set to get some game time replacing Ishan Kishan for the series decider. However, Jurel has an opportunity to showcase his batting skills. Since Sarfaraz didn't really light up the New Zealand series, scoring just 21 runs in four innings, after his maiden Test hundred, there might be a middle-order spot opening up too, with Rishabh Pant being the candidate to take the gloves.
Hence, Kishan and Baba Indrajith would unfortunately miss out on the second game. Nitish Reddy and Prasidh Krishna, the other two members of the Test squad will be in the spotlight too with the date for the series opener getting closer by the day.
India A squad for 2nd unofficial Test: Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), Abhimanyu Easwaran (VC), Sai Sudharsan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Devdutt Padikkal, Ricky Bhui, Baba Indrajith, Ishan Kishan (WK), Abishek Porel (WK), Mukesh Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Navdeep Saini, Manav Suthar, Tanush Kotian, Prasidh Krishna, KL Rahul, Dhruv Jurel (wk)
