5 former Indian cricketers who didn't like the idea of Rohit Sharma opening in Test cricket

5) Chetan Chauhan

In the ’70s Sunil Gavaskar held the Indian batting line-up together by successfully providing good starts and his opening partner used to be Chetan Chauhan. The right-hander is an underrated cricketer of his generation as he scored more than 2000 runs while facing the best of the fast-bowlers in their opening spells. In his 40 Test matches, he piled on 16 half-centuries. Moreover, he shared 10-century partnerships with Gavaskar at top of the order.

After his decade long international sojourn, Chauhan was dropped from the national side and never made a comeback. Thereafter he pursued his career in politics and now he is the minister of youth and sports in Uttar Pradesh. Occasionally he acts as a part of the expert panel in the cricket shows hosted by the news channel, Aaj Tak. Additionally, the former Indian Test opener also gives his thoughts on Indian cricket to various sports columns.

In one of his recent interactions with Hindustan Times, Chauhan discussed India’s opening woes in Test cricket. In his opinion, KL Rahul‘s limited-overs surge has degraded his red-ball skills. Though he didn’t deny the possibility of Rohit Sharma opening the innings he wanted the team management to persist with Rahul. Overall he wished that the team gives a long run to the struggling Karnataka batsman instead of trying out a new option.