India's Australia tour is already off to an ominous start, with star-batter Shubman Gill injured and captain Rohit Sharma not available for the first Test.
If coming into the gruelling five-match series on the back of a historic low at home was not bad enough, the visitors will now have to contend with a depleted batting lineup to go with it.
Gill, who made a memorable 91 the last time India played a Test in Australia, fractured his thumb during India's match simulation training in Perth, while Rohit will only reach Australia after the first Test, having communicated his desire to spend time with his family following the birth of his second child.
In the event of all first-choice players being available, India would have had a settled top five of Rohit, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Gill, Virat Kohli, and Rishabh Pant, with decisions to be made for No.6 and below. However, with two of them out, the knock on effect leaves India scratching their heads for basically the entire XI.
Who replaces Rohit?
Rohit's potential unavailability for the first Test at the Optus Stadium was well-known before India's last series against New Zealand even ended, which should have given the management ample time to prepare a contingency plan.
When Abhimanyu Easwaran was picked as the reserve opener for the Australia tour, it indicated that the Bengal batter would finally be in line for a much-awaited Test debut. Following two India A games and a week of intra-squad practice, however, things are not as straightforward as they were when the squad was named.
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Easwaran has recorded scores of 7, 12, 0, and 17 in the four outings against Australia A, not inspiring much confidence. This has naturally shifted focus to KL Rahul, the only other batter available for the first Test who has opening experience at this level. But Rahul has had issues of his own.
He was flown in early to play one of the two unofficial Tests against Australia A, where he managed a head-scratching leave to get bowled against their off-spinner. Then, he injured his elbow during the intra-squad match simulation, before he was declared fit two days later by the physios.
As per reports, Rohit is slated to return in time for the second Test in Adelaide, which means whoever partners Jaiswal in Perth, will only do so on a stop-gap basis. That should tilt the balance towards Rahul, rather than putting an out of form debutant in the firing line for one Test match alone. Rahul, on the other hand, is not new to being shifted around in the batting order, and has a hundred while opening in Australia as well.
In the off-chance that India don't feel confident with Rahul either, for which they can't be blamed given how short on confidence he has looked so far in this trip, a left-field solution would be to push Dhruv Jurel to open.
Unlike Easwaran and Rahul, Jurel has been in top form, scoring fifties in both innings of the second unofficial Test. The fact that both those scores came after India A suffered an early collapse means that Jurel effectively had to bat against a newish ball, which he did successfully.
The wicketkeeper-batter who made his Test debut earlier this year against England, has batted in the top order in first-class cricket, having last done so in the 2023 Duleep Trophy semi-final, where he came in at No.3. He has also opened the batting for Uttar Pradesh in the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy.
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Who replaces Gill?
While India have two ready-made opening backups for Rohit in the form of Easwaran and Rahul, there are no designated No.3 backups available in the squad to cover for Gill's absence.
The last time Gill missed a Test was in Bengaluru against New Zealand. Kohli moved up to No.3 to accommodate Rahul at No.6 then. But with Rahul now being looked at as an opening contender for the Perth Test, there's no specialist No.6 India have to accommodate. That would leave the same three batters - Easwaran, Rahul, and Jurel - as options to replace Gill at three, assuming Sarfaraz Khan keeps his place at No.6 and Kohli is not moved back up.
The simplest and most probable solution would be to open with Rahul and have Jurel replace Gill at No.3. These two can swap places as well, with Easwaran pushed back down the pecking order of reserve batters.
While there has been no official addition to the squad yet, according to latest reports, Devdutt Padikkal, who played the two unofficial Tests for India A, has stayed back with the main squad as the rest of the India A contingent has returned home.
Padikkal, like Rahul (and Jurel) has moved around the batting order in his first-class career so far, and can fill in both as a replacement opener and at No.3. Like Jurel, Padikkal too made his Test debut in the England series earlier this year, where he batted at No.4, and also scored a fifty against Australia A.
Washington Sundar, R Ashwin, and Nitish Kumar Reddy are the other members in the squad with batting pedigree, but having one of them bat in the top three would be an experiment too wild even for this management, which has shown a propensity for eye-catching experiments.
Unfortunately for India, despite the presence of multiple options, there's no ideal solution to this problem. Every combination of two out of Easwaran, Rahul, Jurel, and Padikkal to replace Rohit and Gill for the Perth Test has its pros and cons. Since both Gill and Rohit are expected to be available for the second Test, however, it shouldn't be a surprise if India go with one of the safer ones.
