Rohit Sharma Clears Speculations on His Batting Position in Adelaide Test While Watching KL Rahul Bat with Baby in His Arms

The cat is out of the bag - India captain Rohit Sharma has officially confirmed that KL Rahul will be opening for India in the day-night Test against Australia in Adelaide. This means that Rohit will be batting in the middle order, likely returning to either No. 5 or 6 where he began his Test career 11 years ago. While Rahul had kept his batting position a secret, Rohit's announcement on the eve of the Test match came as no surprise.

Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal tasted tremendous success in the second innings of the Perth Test, adding a record 201-run partnership – the highest by an Indian opening pair in Australia. While Jaiswal made most of the noise with his knock of 161, Rahul's steady innings off 77 – and an equally important 26 in the first dig – went a long way in setting India a target of 534 runs, which they fell short of by 295 runs. Hence, even with Rohit back, it was an easy decision to make.

"He [Rahul] will be opening the batting; I will bat somewhere in the middle," Rohit said on Thursday. "How I came to that decision of batting down the order is clear. We want results; we want success. And those two guys at the top, just by looking at this one Test match, they batted brilliantly. I was at home with my new-born in my arms and I was watching how KL Rahul batted, it was brilliant to watch to be honest. And I felt that there is no need to change that now; maybe in the future things will be different. I don't know."

The pink-ball Test will mark the first time Rohit will bat in the middle order for India in over six years. Since being promoted to open after an uber-successful World Cup in 2019, Rohit owned that slot with a string of impressive performances. He began with scores of 176 and 212 against South Africa in the home series and added five more centuries, including his maiden ton overseas – 127 against England at The Oval. He clearly has scored more runs opening (2685 runs at an average of 44.01) compared to batting at either No. 5 or 6 (1474 averaging 43.35).

As for Rahul, his career seems to have come full cycle as 10 years ago, it was here in Australia that he began his Test career for India… as an opener. He has been shuffled up and down the middle across formats and seems to have found his footing at the top. There are no guarantees how long India will persist with this combination of Rahil and Jaiswal, but Rohit wants to live in the present, and if that means pushing Rahul to take up his slot, then be it.

"Based on what has happened and what KL has shown outside of India, he probably deserves that place and this point in time. It is something that has given us success in the first Test to have that big partnership with Jaiswal on the other side. When you come to a place like Perth and get 500 runs, it's a big tick on the box. I don't see why we need to change that but what I saw from the outside looked brilliant and there was no need to change anything. Personally, not easy but for the team it made a lot of sense," the captain added.