Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra is not sure whether Team India will look at Abhimanyu Easwaran as a Test opener going forward. He also added that a third opener, along with Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul, will be required once Rohit Sharma retires from Test as well. Notably, India faced a 1-3 defeat against Australia in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024- 25.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel’ Aakash Chopra’, he said, “There were two domestic performers with the team during BGT but weren’t given a single chance. One was Abhimanyu Easwaran and the second was Sarfaraz Khan. They saw Abhimanyu Easwaran in the India A matches. They didn’t like him and he was discarded. He was declared a failure without being given a chance, which is a little sad, but this is the reality. Abhimanyu Easwaran is 29 years old. I don’t know whether the Indian team will look towards him again or not. However, let’s be very honest, if Rohit Sharma goes, an opener has to come.”
ALSO READ: “Shubman’s captaincy is very good” – Ravi Bishnoi on Shubman Gill
He also shared that Easwaran should be given a chance if first-class performances are given preference. Abhimanyu Easwaran has smashed 7,674 runs which came at an average of 48.87 in 101 first-class games. However, he had a poor show in the two unofficial Tests between India A and Australia A, scoring 36 runs at an average of 9.00 in four innings.
“Who will open with Yashasvi? Will you keep continuing with KL Rahul? Of course, you can continue for now because he has done well recently, but can you give the third opener’s role to Abhimanyu Easwaran? He should be thought about. What is the point if you ignore performances in first-class cricket so quickly?” he added.
In the same video, Aakash Chopra also stated that Sarfaraz Khan was treated similarly in BGT 2024-25 as well. He said that while Dhruv Jurel played in the first Test in Perth, Sarfaraz Khan was ignored throughout the series despite his good record in first-class cricket.
“The same is true for Sarfaraz. On one hand, we are asking everyone to play domestic cricket, but are not thinking about those who have done well. Sarfaraz was also there with Abhimanyu Easwaran. To be fair, Sarfaraz has a Test century as well, but he wasn’t given even a single chance despite the batting failing in Australia. Dhruv Jurel played but Sarfaraz didn’t. The entire exercise becomes slightly flawed if we are not going to rate first-class performances. I have mentioned these two, but it’s dependent a lot on what the team management and coaches are thinking about them going forward,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
