3 players India could try as openers instead of KL Rahul and Murali Vijay in the third Test
Team India suffered a humiliating defeat in the hands of England in the second test at The Lord's, thereby going down by 2-0 in the series.
The batting has been a serious issue for the No.1 test team on this tour with all batsmen barring Virat Kohli looking unsettled at the crease and struggling to get past the score of even 30.
The openers seem to be a huge matter of concern for the Indian team as none of Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay and KL Rahul have scored a fifty in an overseas Test match since January 2018. All of them look woefully out of form and it is just a matter of time before the team management swings the axe.
Tough times call for team India to think out of the box. It might not be a bad idea to push someone from the middle-order to open the innings as an experiment.
Let us take a look at the 3 players that India should choose to open the innings in the third Test.
#3 Ravichandran Ashwin
Out of all the batsmen, Ravichandran Ashwin has looked most settled at the crease after Virat Kohli. The Tamil Nadu all-rounder top-scored for India in both innings at The Lord's and is putting a price on his wicket.
One thing that has helped Ashwin survive is his ability to cover the line of the ball. He is showing great competence in reading the swing and is making movements going across to cover the out-swing. Ashwin has portrayed better technique than any of the openers so far on this tour.
Ashwin is considered to be a handy customer with the bat who has scored 2248 runs in 60 tests at an average of 30. Pushing Ashwin up could shield any of the specialist batsmen against the new ball and they could come down the order when the conditions ease out.