Sports: Australia confidently revealed their 13-member squad for the opening Test match against India by naming uncapped youngster Nathan McSweeney as their specialist opener to partner veteran Usman Khawaja. But India, who announced a big squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on October 25, are clearly lacking the same confidence with their opening options for the five-match Test series starting November 22.

It’s been almost ten years since India last lost a Test series in Australia having won 2-1 in both of the last two tours. With the World Test Championship final spots up for grabs, both teams are expected to battle till their last breath and it will require top-notch performance from the opening pairs. The focus will be on openers as India travel with inexperienced specialist options with Rohit Sharma for the series opener in Perth.

But do Rohit Sharma’s men tick all the boxes after a shock and embarrassing 0-3 Test series loss against New Zealand at home?

Specialist openers and back-up options for upcoming tour

Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal have been India’s first-choice opening options in red-ball cricket in 2024 with the latter making a quick impact to kill the competition since his debut in July 2023. Uncapped Abhimanyu Easwaran has joined KL Rahul and Shubman Gill as India’s specialist opening options for the Australia series but it's not enough to threaten Australia star-studded bowling attack. 

Rohit’s potential unavailability for the opening two games has led fans to question India’s batting strength after a lack of runs in the recent Tests against the Kiwis. KL Rahul and Gill last opened in Test cricket in 2023 with the former struggling to find a place in the playing eleven at the moment. 

Easwaran, 29, scored five centuries in six first-class games before India A’s tour of Australia. Fans rejoiced after the BCCI included Easwaran in India’s squad for the BGT but it came down crashing when he scored just 36 runs in four innings for India A, adding salt to India’s opening woes. 

Jaiswal has been superb in red-ball format since his debut last year but the young left-handed opener will be facing Australia at their home turf for the first time in his career. Rohit’s Test numbers in Australia don't add much confidence to India’s batting strength as the under-pressure skipper is yet to score a hundred in his 14 Test innings in Australia.