Sunil Gavaskar picks one between Hanuma Vihari and Rohit Sharma for the Tests

With the end of the T20I series, the focus shifts on the four-match Test series between Australia and India starting December 6 in Adelaide. Experts are seeing the upcoming series as a golden opportunity for Virat Kohli’s men to register India first-ever Test series victory on the Australian soil. Sunil Gavaskar is also certain the Indians can do well provided they make the right decisions.

Team India will have to find the right combination in their playing XI before taking the field for the first Test, which is always crucial to determine the direction of the series. One such dilemma lies over picking seasoned batsman Rohit Sharma or newcomer Hanuma Vihari for the sixth slot in the batting order.

Rohit picked up for a Test squad after almost a year

The 18-member squad that India have picked for the series has as openers, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw and Murali Vijay while Rohit has been taken back into the Test side after almost a year now, thanks to his blazing form with the willow in the limited-overs formats.

He last played a Test in South Africa in January this year but failed to make it to the squads for the side playing against Afghanistan, England and Windies at home. He could be considered for the middle order in the Australia series but Vihari’s impressive debut in the middle order in England will put the team management in a dilemma.

“I would look at Hanuma Vihari because, in the previous Test match that he played, he scored a fifty. So I go with Vihari. And then I would take two spinners and two new-ball bowlers with Hanuma bowling a bit. But again, at Adelaide only because the pitch favours spinners a little,” Gavaskar said on air.

Vihari has played the only Test in his career so far at the Oval in which he scored a fifty and took three wickets even though India lost the match. He averages 28 in the year while Rohit, who played two Tests and managed just 78 runs, averages 19.50. The limited-overs vice-captain made his Test debut in 2013 and has played in only 25 matches since then, scoring 1,479 runs at an average of less than 40 with only three hundreds.

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