BGT 2024-25: Rohit Sharma confirms KL Rahul as opener for Adelaide Test, reveals his batting slot
BGT: Rohit confirms Rahul as opener for Adelaide Test, reveals his slot
Ahead of the second Test between India and Australia, in Adelaide, Indian captain Rohit Sharma confirmed that KL Rahul will continue as an opener. India lead the 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 1-0 following a stunning 295-run win over Pat Cummins-led hosts. Rahul was one of the top performers for India, along with stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli, as he scored a vital 77 and stitched an impressive 201-run opening stand with Jaiswal (becoming the first Indian opening pair to stitch a 200-run stand in Australia). Seeing his form at the top, Rohit has sacrificed his opening slot and revealed that he will bat in the middle.
In the pre-match press conference, Rohit said, on Thursday (Dec 5), "Yeah, he will be opening the batting. I will bat somewhere in the middle."
Since he has opened in Tests, Rohit has played 42 games, scoring nearly 3,000 runs at an average of 44 with 9 hundreds.
Rohit further opined, "And how I came to the decision of batting down the order is clearly we want results, we want success, and those two guys at the top... just looking at this one Test match, they batted brilliantly. I was at home with my newborn in my arms, and I was watching how KL batted. It was brilliant to watch. I felt that there's no need to change that now. Maybe in the future, things will be different. I don't know."
He mentioned, "So based on what has happened and what KL Rahul has shown outside of India, he probably deserves that place at this point in time. It is something that has brought us success in the first Test. You have that one big partnership with Jaiswal on the other side, and you know, it probably won us the Test match. When you come here, in a place like Perth, and you get 500 runs or so, it’s such a massive tick in the box.
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"So I don't see why we need to change that. What I saw from the outside looked brilliant, and there was no need to change anything. It was actually pretty simple for me. Personally, not easy. But for the team, it made a lot of sense," Rohit added.
Rohit missed the BGT series opener due to paternity leave. In his absence, Bumrah led the charge as India recovered from being 150 all-out on Day 1 of the Perth Test to take a slender 46-run lead and then ride on Jaiswal's 161, Rahul's 77 and Kohli's 100* to setup a mammoth 534-run target. In reply, Australia folded for 238 in the final innings, losing by 285 runs.