Indian Openers Attain a New Record during the Third Test at Johannesburg

India has banked heavily on their openers to provide them with good starts. India posted huge totals with significant contributions from their openers during India’s dominance in the long home season. However, they failed to mark since their arrival in the Rainbow Nation.

The likes of KL Rahul, Murali Vijay, and Shikhar Dhawan has struggled to get going in front of South African seamers. This has been a significant drawback for India as they lost the series with one match still to play.

So far in this series, the highest opening stand is of  30 runs in the second innings of the first Test at Newlands. Among the openers, Murali Vijay is the highest scorer in the series so far with 47 runs. He missed his fifty by a whisker in the first dig of the second Test.

However, Indian openers have averaged 12.30 in this series. It is the lowest ever in any Test series of 3 or more matches.

Swashbuckling left-handed opener Shikhar Dhawan, who was dropped from the first XI scored 32 runs in the two innings. He was troubled by the bouncers hurled at him by the Proteas fast bowlers.

KL Rahul, who was outstanding in the overseas tours so far, failed miserably in South Africa. So far, he has registered only 16 runs in the three innings at an average of 4.66. Rahul replaced Dhawan in the second Test.

Vijay has scored 77 runs in five innings so far with an average of 15.40.

However, India needs some solid starts by the opening batters to post challenging totals on the scoreboard in the upcoming games.

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