Australia vs India 2018: Opening with Hanuma Vihari might not be the best idea
A lot of questions have been asked about the inability of the Indian team management to take tough decisions. KL Rahul, Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan are three examples where players were dropped from the team after the horse had bolted.
In spite of not performing outside Asia for the last 4 years, Dhawan was persisted with and let go after Inda lost South African and England series which is a case of too little too late.
KL Rahul is another player with whom Indian team persisted with and that persistence cost India few more Test matches. He should have been dropped much earlier, which would have saved India blushes in Australia and England. Prithvi Shaw came into the Indian team perhaps few Tests late, he should have made his debut in England.
Dhawan, Rahul and Vijay all these openers were struggling while a young man named Mayank Agarwal was scoring runs after runs in the domestic circuit. It took India two lost series and a lost Test match against very weak opposition in the present Australian team to realise that it's better to give an opportunity to a youngster rather than wasting efforts on spent forces like Dhawan and Vijay.
Now in the up and coming third Test in Melbourne, there are talks that Vihari might open the batting for India. Vihari is a middle-order batsman, who has given a good account of himself whenever he has been given an opportunity in the middle order for India. While dropping Rahul and Vijay from the team is a good move, asking Vihari to play new ball in Australia is too much to ask from the youngster.
Not only Vihari, but it will also hamper India's chances. It would have been much wise to ask Parthiv Patel (who has opened for India in the past) to open. Patel is an attacking opener whose game is conducive to bouncy Australian pitches and he could have accumulated some quick runs by playing his trademark backfoot punches and drives.
Also, giving one more opportunity to struggling Rohit Sharma who has already got umpteen number of chances in Test cricket is a step backwards.
On one hand, the decision to let go Vijay and Rahul from the team is a step in the right direction, but, on the other hand, asking Vihari to open would be a case of sweeping things under the carpet as far as addressing India's opening woes are concerned.