Will KL Rahul Open The Batting In IND vs AUS Second Test In Adelaide? Rohit Sharma Responds

India’s skipper Rohit Sharma finally shut down all the rumours and confirmed that KL Rahul will open the innings in the upcoming day-night Test against Australia in Adelaide starting Friday. Rohit will probably bat somewhere in the middle order and his exact batting position is still under the scanner. 

"He [Rahul] will be opening the batting; I will bat somewhere in the middle," Rohit said on Thursday. 

"How I came to that decision of batting down the order is clear. We want results; we want success. And those two guys at the top, just by looking at this one Test match, they batted brilliantly. I was at home with my new-born in my arms and I was watching how KL Rahul batted, it was brilliant to watch to be honest. And I felt that there is no need to change that now; maybe in the future things will be different. I don't know."

 "I have batted a lot in the top order, so I know how I need to get my runs & processes to follow."#TeamIndia batter KL Rahul talks about adapting to the challenges of opening the batting. #AUSvIND | klrahul pic.twitter.com/nnH07U1nSe — BCCI (@BCCI) December 4, 2024

The likes of KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal batted brilliantly in the second innings of the  Perth Test, putting a stand of record 201-run which is the highest by an Indian opening duo in Australia. Jaiswal played a knock of 161 runs while Rahul came up gritty 77 runs after getting out for 26 in the first innings. 

Australia Squad: Pat Cummins (C), Alex Carey (WK), Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Scott Boland.

India Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah(vc), Mohammed Siraj, Sarfaraz Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar, Abhimanyu Easwaran.