There might have been no debate on the matter ordinarily, since Rohit has opened for India for a while now. But Rahul was pushed to the opening slot in Rohit’s absence – he was back home for the birth of his second child – for the Perth Test, and scored 26 and 77 against Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon. He faced 74 balls in the first innings and 176 in the second, batting for 404 minutes overall. Jaiswal scored a duck in the first innings, but then hit a memorable 161 in 297 balls, over 432 minutes in the second, the two of them putting up 201 runs together to set up India’s win.
