Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif said he would prefer Yashasvi Jaiswal and K.L. Rahul as the opening pair ahead of the Boxing Day Test against Australia, which begins at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Thursday. While Jaiswal has gone hot and cold in this series, barring a majestic 161 in Perth, Rahul has been India’s leading run-getter on the current tour, scoring 235 runs from six innings at an impressive average of 47, including two half-centuries. .
Despite various reports that Rohit Sharma might return to open with Rahul promoted to No. 3, Kaif expressed his support for not stopping the Jaiswal-Rahul pairing at the top.
“K.L. Rahul does a great job and Jaiswal also scored a hundred. When Jaiswal plays, India wins the Test match. He is a player like Sevag. When he plays, he will dominate at such a rate that he will take a Test match aside and win it. Thanks to him, India gets a lot of advantages from here.”
“So I will leave Jaiswal there while K.L. Rahul plays without rushing and building the right opening partnership. You can’t write off someone who scored tons in Australia, England, South Africa. He has scored on such bouncy pitches before, so we have to give him preference first,” Kaif said in a video posted on his ‘X’ account on Wednesday.
With the five-match series currently locked at 1-1, Kaif believes the equation is still Stevens and that India can win the game in Melbourne if they get rid of arch-nemesis Travis Head quickly. At the same time, Kaif warned Indian batters to face seamer Scott Boland, who picked five wickets in Adelaide, where Australia won by ten wickets.
“No, I think that the Test series is on an equal level. Even though the Indian batting form is not very good with many players out of shape but the Australian team is also in the same boat. If you pick Travis Head, you will win the Test match because we have Bumrah. If Travis Head is out, then even with an out-of-form batting, the Indian team can win this series.”
“The way their batters are batting and their openers are behind, so there is a big problem with their batters. Barring Travis Head, you can see that Labuschagne was dismissed twice by Nitish Reddy. So, in terms of performance, the Australian team is far behind. In the bowling department, Boland will definitely take 2-3 wickets and trouble the Indian bowlers. I’m telling you right now,” he concluded.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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