Why India should consider dropping Dhawan, not Rahul
India's opening combination has let India down repeatedly during the Test series against England and it is not the first time that India's opening woes are coming to the fore.
Indian openers also struggled during the South African series. During these two tours, India used three specialist opening batsmen- Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul (not taking into account Parthiv Patel who was a makeshift opener in the second innings of the third Test in South Africa).
With Vijay being already out of favour, it boils down to Dhawan and Rahul to fight for one opening slot if the team management goes ahead with Prithvi Shaw as the other opener.
Amidst the talk of opening failures, one needs to remember that out of 8 Test innings played by India on this tour, so far, openers have given a start of more than 50 runs on 3 occasions, which is not the worst by any standard.
Having said that, this stat hides another important factor about Indian opening batsmen- none of the three Indian batsmen went on to make a fifty, let alone a hundred. In Tests, it is very important for a batsman to carry on and capitalise on a start so as to help the team post a massive total. Unsurprisingly, the Indian team have missed a big first innings score in all the three Test matches that they have lost.
Shikhar Dhawan has a knack of throwing away his wicket after getting starts and he has been doing this on a consistent basis recently in the longest format. There is no improvement in his technique and temperament. He plays with an open face and also plays loosely to deliveries which are outside the off-stump. To put it bluntly, his technique is flawed for English conditions.
KL Rahul has also failed miserably in England, but, there is not much wrong with his technique. He is getting into trouble because of his temperament, which still has shades of T-20 cricket, evident from the fact that after showing patience for just 30-40 deliveries, he goes after the balls which are outside the off stump and ends up nicking them.
Dhawan has been given a very long rope but he has not shown any improvement, maybe its time to choose lesser of the two evils and give KL Rahul another opportunity to conquer his demons and showcase better temperament.