After Team India opener Shubman Gill was ruled out of the upcoming England Test series owing to a stress fracture of the shin, there was a lot of talk about sending a replacement opener to England in Gill's place, despite there being backups in the squad.

The Indian team management on June 28 through its administrative manager Girish Dongre had requisitioned for two openers as replacement. However, chairman of selectors Chetan Sharma didn’t respond to this query about sending replacement openers as four openers are already in the UK.

“Prithvi will be staying in Sri Lanka and complete the six match series till July 26. He has been selected and he should complete the commitments. Once the Sri Lanka series is over, possibilities could be explored but nothing as of now," a senior BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

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The reason behind team management wanted to have two openers was because Abhimanyu Easwaran's technique didnt inspire the highest confidence. More so as reports emerged that he wasn't comfortable facing the team's throwdown specialist Raghavendra, aka Raghu.

“Why would KL Rahul be treated purely as middle-order batsman when he has opened for India in the past? There should be equal opportunities and equal risk for everyone opening in the UK," a senior official privy to developments said.

“If Prithvi hasn't played any long form game since Adelaide what's the guarantee that he would work some magic if someone like Rahul with 2000 Test runs is thought to be circumspect against Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad with new Dukes,” a former India player opined.

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Furthermore, the former player questioned why Easwaran should be judged based on training sessions or throwdowns only.

"The captain sits at selection meetings and why didn't raise a protest when Chetan and co were sending Easwaran to England? Who stopped him from voicing his protest. Now if you have picked Easwaran, he has the first right to get into the main squad. But he comes into the picture only after Rohit (Sharma), Rahul, and Mayank (Agarwal) fail and why would we harbor such negative thoughts," he said.

After the 8-wicket loss to New Zealand in the recently concluded final of the World Test Championship (WTC), the next assignment for Virat Kohli and Co. is a five-match Test series against hosts England that too in front of capacity crowd.

(With PTI Inputs)