India suffered a huge setback ahead of the first Test against Australia as young opener Prithvi Shaw sustained an ankle injury on the penultimate day of India’s warm-up clash against Cricket Australia XI.
"Shaw underwent scans this morning and the reports revealed a lateral ligament injury. Shaw will be unavailable for the First Test against Australia in Adelaide. He will undergo an intensive rehabilitation program to hasten the recovery and be available for selection at the earliest," the official media release from the BCCI stated on Friday (November 30).
Shaw’s sudden injury has sparked the debate over India’s opening combination for the Adelaide Test, starting on December 6. Although the numero Test side has the option to go with the tried and tested pair of Murali Vijay and KL Rahul, former England skipper Michael Vaughan reckons that the visitors should draft the exceptionally gifted Rohit Sharma at the top of the order.
Taking to Twitter, Vaughan wrote: “Such a shame if @PrithviShaw misses the 1st Test versus the Aussies .. Fantastic young talent .. I personally would replace him with @ImRo45 at the top of the order .. He is far too good not to master Test Cricket .. #AUSvIND”.
Such a shame if @PrithviShaw misses the 1st Test versus the Aussies .. Fantastic young talent .. I personally would replace him with @ImRo45 at the top of the order .. He is far too good not to master Test Cricket .. #AUSvIND
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) November 30, 2018
Sharma earned a spot in the Indian Test squad on the back of his stunning show in the white-ball cricket. In 2018, India’s limited-overs vice-captain is averaging a whopping 73.57 in ODI cricket with 1030 runs while he averages nearly 37 in T20I cricket from 19 matches with 2 tons and 3 fifties.
Recently, former Australian captain Ian Chappell also backed Rohit to be drafted into the playing XI considering his ability to take on the hostile fast bowling.
“The Indian top three should be aware that the Australian pacemen will be seeking early scalps in order to get the redoubtable Virat Kohli in while the ball is still shiny. This leads to a selection conundrum. Do India bat the dogged Cheteshwar Pujara at three and hope he’ll wear the quickies down or do they gamble on Rohit Sharma who is technically well-equipped to tackle the short-pitched stuff aggressively? Kohli showed on the last tour of Australia that he’s extremely adept at dealing with short-pitched deliveries but it would be of great benefit to provide him with an ally in this confrontation,” Chappell wrote in his column for Hindustan Times.
