Former Indian opener, Virender Sehwag has come in support of the pair of KL Rahul and Prithvi Shaw to open for India during the entirety of the four-Test series against Australia and feels that it will be hard for Murali Vijay to get a game. Vijay scored plenty of runs for English county club Essex after being dropped during the England tour and following his return to form, made his way back into the Test squad for the Australia tour.
In his absence, Prithvi Shaw made an impact with a century on Test debut in Rajkot against West Indies. However, KL Rahul, who struggled during England tour barring the fifth and final Test when he scored an impressive century, failed in both the Tests against Windies scoring 0 and four across two innings.
However, Sehwag feels that Vijay has had his share of chances and should wait before hoping to break into the playing XI again. As quoted in Cricbuzz, Sehwag said, “In my opinion, KL Rahul and Prithvi Shaw should open. They should be India’s no. 1 choice for the opening slot]. If I’m the captain, I will give full series to Rahul-Shaw. Murali Vijay got his chance. Now he has to wait. If somebody flops in eight innings, then I will prefer to give Vijay a chance otherwise I don’t think so. They should get a fare chance to prove themselves. Shaw has proved himself. He’s the future. I am not seeing Vijay playing in Tests in Australia.”
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However, Rahul hasn’t been in best of form in 2018. having scored 420 runs at an average of 24.70. But Viu reckons that he has worked upon his mistakes and will face different conditions than in England where he was repeatedly bowled or trapped lbw.
Describing his point further, Sehwag said, “I think he has identified the problem in the last innings in England when he scored a hundred. He was standing outside the leg stump and was aware he was coming across and getting lbw. I’m sure in Australia he won’t face much swing and seam movement. The ball will come nicely onto the bat. He must have identified his problem of not going across the line. I think he’ll score runs. Just needs to show some patience with the new ball and after that, he can score runs all through the day because in Australia, first ball and the last ball of the day come nicely onto the bat.”
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While there’s a stiff competition for the opener’s slot between Rahul and Vijay, Shaw seems to have sealed that spot with an excellent start to his Test career. He impressed during India’s practice match in Adelaide hitting a quickfire 66.
Sehwag expects the young prodigy to do well in the Test series. He elaborated, “When I opened, nobody expected me to do well in Australia. They spoke about my feet not moving, I played too many shots so it’ll be difficult for me to score in Australia but I proved them wrong. I’m sure Prithvi Shaw has a better feet movement than me, so he’ll do well. The only shot he needs to worry about is the backfoot punch. It’s not a good shot in Australia because the extra bounce and movement early on will cause problems. Otherwise, all other shots he can play.”
