India and England are all set to lock horns against each other on 4th August 2021 which will mark the resumption of the second cycle of the World Test Championship in Trent Bridge.
The matches between these two powerhouses of the game will certainly generate a lot of eyeballs in terms of viewership is concerned as India has lost few players ahead of 1st Test due to injury including the likes of Shubhman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Washington Sundar, and Avesh Khan.
If we look at the last cycle of the World Test Championship India did pretty well as the only series that they lost before playing the final was against New Zealand who defeated them in the final two by eight wickets to become inaugural World Test Champions.
Former India cricketer and renowned commentator Sunil Gavaskar has backed Kl Rahul to open innings for India against England in the first Test match starting tomorrow which seems the right choice as the Karanataka born batsman stitched 101* runs against a recently concluded match against County X1.
In fact, the 71-year-old wants Rahul to feature in all five games even after Agarwal’s recovery from injury.
“I think with KL Rahul scoring a hundred in the three-day game, he should be the person that they should consider to open the batting. Mayank Agarwal has had an outstanding season in 2019 but the last tour to Australia, he struggled a bit,” Gavaskar was quoted as per saying by India Today.
“Whereas with a hundred under his belt, I think Rahul will have lots of confidence. He is the person I would look at opening the batting, not having Pujara going up the order. Also, don’t forget, the last Test match that Rahul played in England (in 2018), he got a hundred at The Oval. With that in mind, it might be a good idea to look at Rahul as an opener ahead of Mayank,” the batting great added.
Kl Rahul is not a part of India’s red-ball format for long it will be interesting to see how he will perform once he get an opportunity in the upcoming mega event against England.
