These five openers have been scoring runs in huge numbers in Indian domestic cricket.
However, the result was completely opposite to what the Indian team fans were expecting. The Indian team surrendered meekly as they faced James Anderson and Stuart Broad in their full form. Indian team got out for 107 and 130 runs in the two innings and lost the match by an innings and 159 runs.
One of the biggest reasons for the batting failure has been the inability of openers to negotiate the swing and seam of England quick bowlers. In the two Tests, the openers have been out of sorts against some quality bowling and it has hurt the Indian team badly.
Shikhar Dhawan and M Vijay opened in the first Test. Dhawan scored 26 and 13, while Vijay scored 20 and 6. After India lost the match by 31 runs; Dhawan was promptly dropped from the XI for the Lord’s Test. Rahul opened with Vijay in Lord's and the result just got worst.
M Vijay bagged a pair, falling victim to James Anderson’s guile in both innings, while Rahul scored 8 and 10 in the two innings.
Much was expected from M Vijay on this tour, as he was the highest run-getter for India on the disastrous tour of 2014. He had come into this series with a century against Afghanistan to his name and his ability to let the balls go gave the impression to experts that he was an opener of a bygone era.
However, that judgment of leaving the balls deserted him, as seemed eager to play every ball and got out doing so. Dhawan got a raw deal after the first Test, while Rahul failed to counter the swing and just planted his foot down the wicket, in hopes of negating the movement.
Now with all the three openers failing to give something concrete to the team, we have to look at alternatives to these openers.
Here are the five alternate options for opening batsmen for Team India
FAIZ FAZAL
Fazal also played a solitary ODI for India, against Zimbabwe in 2016 and scored 55*. An old-school opener, Fazal grinds out his runs by boring the bowlers and getting them to bowl at his strengths. Fazal had a compact technique and has the concentration to play for long periods of time and being a left-hander, he will bring the much-needed variety to the top order of Indian team which is packed with right-handers.
32-year-old Fazal is in the prime of his career and can easily serve the country for a decent time and the time is right for him to play in countries like Australia and New Zealand in the coming 2-3 years.
RAHUL TRIPATHI
In 31 FC matches, Tripathi had scored 1695 runs with 5 centuries at an average of 35.31 and a strike rate of 51.06. An attacking batsman by nature, Tripathi takes the game head on, a bit like Virender Sehwag used to do. This puts the pressure back on the bowlers to readjust their lines and lengths.
This sort of batting might come in handy for India when they face the more aggressive bowlers of England and Australian teams.
MAYANK AGARWAL
Agarwal also had a very good run for the India A team on the tour to England where he scored 151*, 112, 112 in the triangular One-Day series. In the four First-Class matches, Agarwal has already scored a double hundred and a fifty. He is currently in the form of his life and that is when a young batsman should be given a chance at the international level.
He has scored 3245 runs in 42 FC matches with a best of 304* and an average of 49.92 and 8 centuries to his name.
Another aggressive opener, Agarwal likes to dictate terms and has a good judgment of his off stump. He seems to take on bowlers who are at the top of their game and take them apart. If Agarwal gets his eyes in, one can expect nothing less than a big score from him; something the Indian team is in desperate need of.
PRIYANK PANCHAL
A compact opener with a rock solid technique, Panchal is known for his defensive way of playing, which makes the bowlers bowl to Panchal where he likes and he then scores freely off them. He has played 66 FC matches and scored 4565 runs with 15 centuries and has a best of 314* and he averages 46.58.
The 28-year-old Ahmedabad born opener loves to grind out the runs and thanks to his copybook technique; he could be a good foil for someone like Dhawan, who goes for his runs at the top.
PRITHVI SHAW
Shaw has a natural technique to take on the bowlers and score runs at the top. He led the U19 Indian team to the World Cup title win recently and since then has been on a roll with a brilliant start to his IPL career as well. In the last Ranji season, Shaw scored 537 runs in 6 matches with a best of 123 and 3 centuries to his name.
He recently played for India A in England and in the four FC matches has had scores of 188, 62 and 136 to his name. India is not known for blooding players at such young age, but when they have done, the players have been exceptional talents like Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh.
Shaw can easily be named in the list of such exceptional talents and if India wants to have an opener for a long-term, Shaw is the answer to those questions and needs to be given a chance right now.