Rohit Sharma vs KL Rahul: Who has better numbers as opener for India in test cricket?

Rohit Sharma will be slotting in the middle-order in the Adelaide test match against Australia.

India captain Rohit Sharma has confirmed that KL Rahul will be opening in the Adelaide test match against Australia, while he will slot in the middle-order.

Rahul batted superbly in the Perth test in the absence of Rohit. The 32-year-old formed a 201-run opening stand in India’s second innings with Yashasvi Jaiswal, which is the highest opening partnership by an Indian pair in Australia in test cricket.

There had been a huge debate whether Rohit would take back his opening position and push Rahul down in the middle-order once again when he returns.

However, the Indian skipper said that temporarily Rahul will continue to open given his brilliant show in Perth as he negotiated the new ball safely and formed a match-winning stand with Jaiswal.

Rohit started his test career in 2013 in the middle-order. After a stop-start career, he was then promoted to open in 2019 and sealed the spot with two tons and a double hundred against South Africa. Since then, he has been opening in all test matches that he’s been part of.

For Rahul, he’s gone through a churner in the batting positions. Rahul has batted in five different positions in his test career. He settled into a middle-order role last year with a century in South Africa but was dropped from the XI recently against New Zealand before making a comeback as an opener.

Let us see the stats comparison of Rohit and Rahul as openers in test cricket.

Rohit Sharma vs KL Rahul: Who has better numbers as opener in test cricket?

As a test opener, Rohit statistically has better numbers than KL Rahul. Rohit averages 44 as an opener in 37 tests, while Rahul averages 35 in 45 tests. Rohit has nine centuries, where Rahul has seven tons to his name.

Rahul has, however, done well away from home, especially in the testing conditions of England, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

In SENA countries, in 18 tests, Rahul averages 33.02 as an opener, having hit four centuries. Rahul is the only Indian opener in history to have notched up a test century in all three of England, Australia and South Africa.

Rohit has featured in 10 test matches in SENA countries as an opener, in which he averages 37.72 with one century.

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