Australia vs India: Virat Kohli hints at playing same openers in the Boxing Day Test

India made a superlative start to the four-match Test series against Australia courtesy of a superlative victory by 31 runs in Adelaide. The likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane contributed with some useful scores and the bowlers also did an exceptional job. Subsequently, they took a 1-0 lead in the series. The Australians played well, but India didn’t let them have the last laugh.

However, the second Test at new Perth Stadium didn’t turn out to be a memorable one for Virat Kohli and Co as they lost by 146 runs. At the close of play on the fourth day, the visiting team needed 175 more runs and they had five wickets in hand. Nevertheless, India couldn’t weather the storm of the Australian fast bowlers and were bundled out for 140 runs in merely 56 overs.

Virat Kohli names the openers

In the meantime, Kohli, the Indian captain, has mentioned that they are most likely to play the same right-handed opening pair of Murali Vijay and KL Rahul in the third Boxing Day Test, which is scheduled to get underway on Wednesday, December 26 at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). The 30-year-old talked about the same in the post-match press conference.

India have had their fair share of headaches as far as the opening pair is concerned. KL Rahul looked good for a brief while during India’s second innings in Adelaide, but apart from that, has been miserable, to say the least. Even as he has scored 48 runs in the couple of matches at an average of 12, the Karnataka batsman could only manage a couple of runs in Perth.

On the contrary, Vijay has been able to notch only 49 runs thus far in the series. Moreover, Prithvi Shaw, the teenage sensation, who was in the initial squad, was earlier ruled due owing to the ankle injury he suffered during India’s warm-up match against Cricket Australia XI at Sydney Cricket Ground. Karnataka batsman Mayank Agarwal has been roped in as the 19-year-old’s replacement.

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