Virat Kohli torn apart between Vijay and Rahul

India skipper Virat Kohli and the Indian team management have a selection conundrum on their hands. Of course, it is a conundrum of the good type as they are torn apart two opening batsmen who have performed exceedingly well over the past few Test matches. Murali Vijay, who has been the mainstay of the Indian team since making it into the side in 2008. However, KL Rahul, who has been a part of the side for slightly over a year, smashed a wonderful century in the second Test, ironically replacing Murali Vijay while the latter missed courtesy of an injury.

“Cricket is a very uncertain game at times. Injuries are not in anyone’s hands. Even in the IPL, I remember a game where Mandeep Singh was fit and set to play. While I was at the toss he split his webbing, KL (Rahul) got a chance and he hasn’t looked back since. We conveyed to Mandeep that unfortunately it was an injury and nothing can be done about that. We need to look at the balance of the side.

“Good thing is all three openers are playing well. Bad thing is that you can only choose two between three. That is a call we need to take as management. We’ll sit down today and do that. These things are not in your hands, getting injured when playing well. That’s why they say injuries can really upset people and bring them down. The good thing is Vijay has been in a good head-space. He’s back to the nets and back to fielding. We’ll take a call on that. We still have to discuss that,” Virat Kohli added.

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Speaking about the wicket, Kohli said that it would get harder as the days go by. “I had a look at the pitch yesterday. It looks pretty similar to Antigua. Even grass covering. The surface should harden up. I think they didn’t have too much time to water it and roll it because of the rain. But it should become pretty hard. We’ve known this wicket to have a lot of bounce and carry. That’s a good sign for the bowlers. All five days you have a chance to pick up wickets. It doesn’t slow down too much, which is a very good sign and looks like a wicket where a result is very much possible.”

Finally, Kohli also stated the importance of selecting the best possible bowling unit for the Test. “That’s something that we will touch upon. We speak about these things post-practice before the game day and this is one area that we need to discuss as well, what our best options are on a wicket like this and whether they are fit enough to perform their job, who is fit enough to do the job the team requires them to do. So as I have said before this team is always up for changes according to the conditions and that’s something that will be in consideration as well. So we will talk about that in terms of combination perspective.”

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