India stars KL Rahul and Dhruv Jurel, according to a report in ESPN Cricinfo, are being sent early to Australia and will play a game for India A against Australia A. After India’s loss against New Zealand in a Test series at home, the Rohit Sharma-led side is under big scrutiny. In the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy, India need to win four matches in Australia to not be reliant on other teams’ results for qualifying for next year’s World Test Championship final. In that context, the sudden decision to send KL Rahul and Dhriv Jurel early may be perceived as a desperate move.  

“They sent Rahul and Jurel. But why? This means there is a lot of concern over India’s batting. If you think that there is not enough confidence in batting, then…I mean the team should have at least someone in-form. One more question is didn’t India pick the team for Australia a bit too soon? I mean, they could have named the squad after the New Zealand Test series. May be that could have seen Sai Sudharsan in the Indian team, because he went to Australia and scored runs. Now they did not include him. Moreover, Rahul and Jurel did not get game time in India, so they were sent to Australia so that they can find form and score runs,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

“If you ask me to choose between Rahul and Sarfaraz for the Australia tour, I will pick the former though the latter has scored 150 against New Zealand. And even between Jurel and Sarfaraz, I might still be tempted with the former. I really want Sarfaraz to do well, but I’m not 100 per cent certain about the way he bats and how successful will it be in Australia. The way he plays…against fast bowling runs may not be scored in the same way. Maybe that is why Rahul and Jurel were sent early, and if they do find form, they could make the playing XI for the first Test.” 

India will play five Tests in Australia starting November 22.