Not Ajinkya Rahane but KL Rahul is the first choice to replace Dhawan in 2nd Test.
Not Ajinkya Rahane but KL Rahul is the first choice to replace Dhawan in 2nd Test.
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In a Test match build-up, few elements make for a juicy debate the way dissecting a combination of the playing eleven does. Why this batsman and why not that. Why a five-bowler attack at the cost of an extra batsman. Why risk a debutant in place of an experienced Test cap. This question is raised by every fan after lost the first test in a brutal collapse fashion against Proteas in the first test.

Experts rarely come to an agreement on these issues with opinions alone adding to the build-up of a game like little else. The Cape Town Test, one that India lost to South Africa by 72 runs in almost four days, with one of those days getting robbed by rain, led to one such build-up. The young debutant Jasprit Bumrah's selection over the more experienced Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav wasn't spared either, except that the bowler with the unorthodox action.

That aside, Rohit Sharma should give another chance to prove. He has to his credit 564 runs from 10 One-day Internationals at an average of 62.67 and a highest of 171 not out in 2016. In 2017, he took that performance several notches higher by registering 1293 runs in 21 ODIs at an average of 71.83 with a highest of 208 not out. Both these years, he has enjoyed a strike rate between 95 and 100, setting new benchmarks in the format.

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