Australia vs India 2018: Sunil Gavaskar Picks India's Opening Pair for First Test

Former Indian legendary batsman Sunil Gavaskar has picked his opening pair for the first Test match against Australia slated to start from December 6. India has three openers in KL Rahul, Murali Vijay and young Prithvi Shaw. Vijay had regained his form in the County Championship whereas Prithvi Shaw had made an impressive start to his Test career.

On the other hand, KL Rahul hasn’t been in the best of forms as he was troubled by the incoming delivery in England. The flamboyant batsman had an ordinary series against the Windies. Furthermore, he could not hit the ground running in the two T20Is against Australia. Therefore, Sunil Gavaskar believes India’s opening pair should be Prithvi Shaw and Murali Vijay for the first Test match.

Rahul isn’t in the best of forms.

“He (Shaw) is got to play the first Test,” said Gavaskar on air. “He has had his form not just in New Zealand, but also in the two Test matches that he played in the home. Rahul’s form has not been well. If Rahul had been scoring runs in Australia, even in the T20s if he would have scored at least 30s or 40s, we could have said yes”.

“But I agree with Robin Uthappa (who was also present on air), I think it got to be Murali Vijay and Prithvi. Vijay has been doing well overseas for a long time. It had been a pretty ordinary series in England, and that can happen to anybody. But he is a good player and I would like to see him open. He and Shaw will make just the right combination. For Shaw is attacking, like Sehwag, he likes to get to the ball. Murali, on the other hand, will play the role of an anchor.”

Prithvi Shaw has shown the promise to do well in the Australian conditions as he has a good backfoot game. Furthermore, he had also scored a fine fifty against New Zealand A while playing for India A.

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Meanwhile, Murali Vijay has all the experience under his belt. He had performed brilliantly in the previous tour of 2014 as he had scored 402 runs. Moreover, Vijay is in good form and would like to make the most of his opportunity.

India will play a four-day warm-up match against Cricket Australia XI before the first Test and it would be interesting to see India’s opening pair.