‘He will bat at No.4 after Virat Kohli leaves’: Sunil Gavaskar names his pick ahead of India vs Australia Tests

Virat Kohli’s paternity leave had become a huge topic of discussion in the lead-up to India’s tour of Australia. Now with less than a week to go before the first of the four Tests in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, it has once again come to fore with the discussion evolving into who would replace Kohli in the Indian batting order after he leaves at the end of the first Test Adelaide.

Legendary cricketers Sunil Gavaskar, Brian Lara and Ricky Ponting talked about the importance of Kohli and the need for India to find someone to bat at No.4 for as many as three Tests.

India’s Gavaskar said it should be Ajinkya Rahane who should bat at the crucial No.4 position after Kohli leaves for the birth of his first child.

“Virat’s obviously there only for the first Test then you’d expect Rahane to take over (as captain) but they (India) have to find someone to bat at No.4. Who do you expect to take that No.4 spot?” Asked former Australia skipper Ponting, who was the host of the panel discussion aired on 7 cricket, the official broadcaster of India vs Australia Tests.

“It looks to me it could be KL Rahul. Or no, actually I think Rahane will go at No.4 once Virat goes away,” Gavaskar said in reply.

The former India opener then said it would be a toss-up between KL Rahul and Shubman Gill for the No.5 spot.

“Then you might have Rahul bat at No.5 or Shubman Gill,” Gavaskar added.

Interestingly, KL Rahul did not feature in the two warm-up games and neither did Kohli. Rahane, who is slated to take over as the India captain after Kohli’s departure, led India in the two tour games.

The Mumbai right-hander also notched up a classy hundred in the first warm-up game against Australia A.

Talking about the first-ever day-night Test between the two sides, Gavaskar said Australia have the experience of playing more pink-ball Tests.

“I would think whoever bats well is going to win the game. Australia has played a lot of (day-night) matches, they have the experience of knowing exactly what happens when the sun’s going down and how to bat and bowl at that particular point of time,” he said.