{"id":174021,"date":"2024-11-13T11:58:12","date_gmt":"2024-11-13T11:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/13\/indias-conundrum-down-under-where-are-specialist-openers-for-border-gavaskar-trophy\/"},"modified":"2024-11-13T11:58:12","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T11:58:12","slug":"indias-conundrum-down-under-where-are-specialist-openers-for-border-gavaskar-trophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/13\/indias-conundrum-down-under-where-are-specialist-openers-for-border-gavaskar-trophy\/","title":{"rendered":"India&#8217;s conundrum down under: Where are specialist openers for Border-Gavaskar Trophy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/resize.indiatvnews.com\/en\/centered\/newbucket\/1200_675\/2024\/11\/eng-main-1731497167.jpg?resize=1200,675&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"India&#8217;s conundrum down under: Where are specialist openers for Border-Gavaskar Trophy?\" title=\"India&#8217;s conundrum down under: Where are specialist openers for Border-Gavaskar Trophy?\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"content\">\n<div class=\"atimgbign\" id=\"story-featured-image\" style=\"display: inline-block;\">\n<figure class=\"artbigimg row\"><figcaption><span class=\"author\">Image Source : INDIA TV<\/span> India&#8217;s opening conundrum for BGT 2024-25<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"artconfp\">Australia confidently revealed their 13-member squad\u00a0for the opening Test match against India by naming uncapped youngster Nathan McSweeney as their specialist opener to partner veteran <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatvnews.com\/topic\/usman-khawaja\" rel=\"noopener\">Usman Khawaja<\/a>. But India, who announced a big squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on October 25, are clearly lacking the same confidence\u00a0with their opening options for the five-match Test series starting November 22.  <!-- \/8323530\/ITv_Desktop_VDO_1X1 -->\n  <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been almost ten years since India last lost a Test series in Australia having won 2-1 in both of the last two tours. With the World Test Championship final spots up for grabs, both teams are expected to battle till their last breath and it will require top-notch performance from the opening pairs. The focus will be on openers as India travel with inexperienced specialist options\u00a0with <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatvnews.com\/topic\/rohit-sharma\" rel=\"noopener\">Rohit Sharma<\/a> for the series opener in Perth.<\/p>\n<p>But do Rohit Sharma\u2019s men tick all the boxes after a shock and embarrassing 0-3 Test series loss against New Zealand at home?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Specialist openers and back-up options for upcoming tour<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal have been India\u2019s first-choice opening options in red-ball cricket in 2024 with the latter making a quick impact to kill the competition since his debut in July 2023. Uncapped Abhimanyu Easwaran has joined\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatvnews.com\/topic\/kl-rahul\" rel=\"noopener\">KL Rahul<\/a> and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatvnews.com\/topic\/shubman-gill\" rel=\"noopener\">Shubman Gill<\/a> as India\u2019s specialist opening options for the Australia series but it&#8217;s not enough to threaten Australia star-studded bowling attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rohit\u2019s potential unavailability for the opening two games has led fans to question India\u2019s batting strength after a lack of runs in the recent Tests against the Kiwis. KL Rahul and Gill last opened in Test cricket in 2023 with the former struggling to find a place in the playing eleven at the moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Easwaran, 29, scored five centuries in six first-class games before India A\u2019s tour of Australia. Fans rejoiced after the BCCI included Easwaran in India\u2019s squad for the BGT but it came down crashing when he scored just 36 runs in four innings for India A, adding salt to India\u2019s opening woes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jaiswal has been superb in red-ball format\u00a0since his debut last year but the young left-handed opener will be facing Australia at their home turf\u00a0for the first time in his career. Rohit\u2019s Test numbers in Australia don&#8217;t add much confidence to India\u2019s batting strength as the under-pressure\u00a0skipper is yet to score a\u00a0hundred in his 14 Test innings in Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/resize.indiatvnews.com\/en\/resize\/newbucket\/715_-\/2024\/11\/1-1731496959.jpg\" title=\"India Tv - India's opening conundrum for BGT 2024-25\" rel=\"index,follow\" alt=\"India Tv - India's opening conundrum for BGT 2024-25\"\/><\/p>\n<figure class=\"artbigimg\"><figcaption><span class=\"author\">Image Source : INDIA TV<\/span>India&#8217;s opening conundrum for BGT 2024-25<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>However, this is not the first time India have faced dilemma and uncertainty with opening options for the BGT tour. During the\u00a01999-2000 Australia tour, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatvnews.com\/topic\/sachin-tendulkar\" rel=\"noopener\">Sachin Tendulkar<\/a>-led\u00a0India used\u00a0Sadagoppan Ramesh, VVS Laxman,\u00a0Devang Gandhi and MSK Prasad as openers in a three-match series and suffered an embarrassing 0-3 series loss, which triggered heavy criticism from the fans regarding India&#8217;s rotation strategy with opening options. Will they dare to make experiments with opening pairs in the upcoming tour or stick with the Rohit-Yashasvi pair?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Not-so-impressive run from Indian openers in recent Australia tours<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>However, this is not the first time that the Indian team is travelling to Australia with an opening conundrum as they have faced a similar situation in the previous two tours. India used just one opening pair during the first three Australia tours in the 21st century but returned with heavy series losses which forced them to look at multiple options at the top.<\/p>\n<p>India utilised four openers Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatvnews.com\/topic\/mayank-agarwal\" rel=\"noopener\">Mayank Agarwal<\/a> and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatvnews.com\/topic\/prithvi-shaw\" rel=\"noopener\">Prithvi Shaw<\/a> for a four-match series in 2020-21 with no player playing all games. Gill was the only effective opener with 289 runs in six innings at an average of 51.80 but India emerged victorious after heroic innings from middle-order batters. Rohit scored 129 runs in two games in his first-ever Australia Test tour with\u00a0the highest score of 52.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>From the current squad, KL Rahul also opened alongside Murali Viajay and Mayank Agarwal during the 2018-19 tour. Rahul scored just 57 runs in 5 innings but once again the middle-order came to rescue India and help register a 2-1 series win.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/resize.indiatvnews.com\/en\/resize\/newbucket\/715_-\/2024\/11\/2-2-1731496960.jpg\" title=\"India Tv - India's opening conundrum for BGT 2024-25\" rel=\"index,follow\" alt=\"India Tv - India's opening conundrum for BGT 2024-25\"\/><\/p>\n<figure class=\"artbigimg\"><figcaption><span class=\"author\">Image Source : INDIA TV<\/span>India&#8217;s opening conundrum for BGT 2024-25<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>Kl Rahul\u2019s current form and his poor show during the 2018-19 Australia tour further exposed India\u2019s lack of specialist opening options for the upcoming series. Gill has an impressive record as an opener in red-ball cricket in Australia but can India afford to shift his position with no direct replacement for the No.3 role?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Past openers\u2019 golden run in Australia sans\u00a0silverware<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The legendary Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag, India\u2019s two best-ever Test openers, were impressive against strong bowling attacks\u00a0but failed to produce favourable results for the team\u00a0in the away series.<\/p>\n<p>Before Gill, only Gavaskar had managed to maintain a fifty-plus average while opening in Test matches in Australia. The former captain scored 920 runs in just 19 Test innings at an average of 51.11 with five centuries as an opener in Australia, but at the end of the day, it was not enough for India to register a series win.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/resize.indiatvnews.com\/en\/resize\/newbucket\/715_-\/2024\/11\/4-1731496959.jpg\" title=\"India Tv - India's opening conundrum for BGT 2024-25\" rel=\"index,follow\" alt=\"India Tv - India's opening conundrum for BGT 2024-25\"\/><\/p>\n<figure class=\"artbigimg\"><figcaption><span class=\"author\">Image Source : INDIA TV<\/span>India&#8217;s opening conundrum for BGT 2024-25<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>Sehwag, who holds the record for most Test runs by an Indian opener in Australia, featured in three tours but India suffered a heavy 0-4 series loss in his last appearance in 2011-12. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatvnews.com\/topic\/murali-vijay\" rel=\"noopener\">Murali Vijay<\/a> made a stunning impact in his maiden Australia Test tour in 2014-15 with 482 runs at an average of 60.25 but he scored just 49 runs in four innings as an opener during the 2018-19 tour, where India\u00a0registered their first-ever BGT series win in Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Recent opening woes swept under the rug?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Rohit and Yashasvi opened for India in all three Test matches against New Zealand but the duo failed to make any significant impact with just one fifty in six innings each. The management is unlikely to tinker with India\u2019s opening pair if Rohit remains available for the entire Australia series as they lack a like-to-like replacement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Talking about the stats of current Indian openers in Australia, there is just one Test hundred among five players, so it would be foolish to rely on just openers for a positive series result.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/resize.indiatvnews.com\/en\/resize\/newbucket\/715_-\/2024\/11\/3-1-1731496960.jpg\" title=\"India Tv - India's opening conundrum for BGT 2024-25\" rel=\"index,follow\" alt=\"India Tv - India's opening conundrum for BGT 2024-25\"\/><\/p>\n<figure class=\"artbigimg\"><figcaption><span class=\"author\">Image Source : INDIA TV<\/span>India&#8217;s opening conundrum for BGT 2024-25<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>Easwaran remains uncapped and Jaiswal is yet to play in Australia, so only Rohit, Rahul and Shubman are familiar with the playing conditions. Rohit has played just two Test matches in Australia as an opener while Rahul has featured in four and Gill in three. So it\u2019s just nine Test matches among three openers before the 2024-25 tour.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of performance, Rohit has registered just one fifty in his four Test innings as an opener in Australia while Rahul has a brilliant hundred but in seven innings. Gill has the best numbers among the trio with 289 runs at an average of 51.80 but as mentioned\u00a0above, the Indian think-tank is unlikely to shift his role.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async>\nfunction loadFacebookScript(){\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\nfbq('init', '529056027274737');\nfbq('track', 'PageView');\n}\nwindow.addEventListener('load', (event) => {\n\tsetTimeout(function(){\n        loadFacebookScript();\n\t}, 5000);\n});\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatvnews.com\/sports\/cricket\/india-conundrum-down-under-where-are-specialist-openers-for-border-gavaskar-trophy-2024-11-13-961344\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image Source : INDIA TV India&#8217;s opening conundrum for BGT 2024-25 Australia confidently revealed their 13-member squad\u00a0for the opening Test match against India by naming uncapped youngster Nathan McSweeney as their specialist opener to partner veteran Usman Khawaja. But India, who announced a big squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on October 25, are clearly lacking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/resize.indiatvnews.com\/en\/centered\/newbucket\/1200_675\/2024\/11\/eng-main-1731497167.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[605],"tags":[107773,1007,91897,14969,15027,21207,135917,125729,119166,1374,119359,97055,11287,925,135918,5969,40191,342,34065,1265,8843],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174021"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174021"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174023,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174021\/revisions\/174023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}