Despite their form, both Mukund and Nair may find themselves out of playing XI with return of Murali Vijay and Rahane
When the India Test squad lined up on Tuesday at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here for a game of foot-volley, which has become a regular pre-net routine now-a-days, Abhinav Mukund was at the backline of the same court as captain Virat Kohli. He was serving with his foot and enjoying the action unfold in front of him, indulging in laughter with his mates.
Mukund, the left-handed opener from Tamil Nadu, makes up for the seventh opener named in the Test squad in the last year and a half since the India faced Bangladesh in Fatullah in June 2015.
Mukund may not open here against the same opposition in the one-off Test from Thursday as he is a stand-by for regular openers KL Rahul and Murali Vijay.
The inclusion of Mukund, rewarding him for the 1,000-plus runs he has scored in the 2016-17 first-class season, may have raised eyebrows. But he was in the reckoning since last September after becoming the first Indian centurion with the pink ball in Duleep Trophy on a tricky Greater Noida pitch. He was one of the two sent to National Cricket Academy to prove his fitness after KL Rahul suffered hamstring injury in the Kanpur Test against New Zealand. However, Gautam Gambhir got the nod then.
After consistent performance in the Ranji Trophy and also considering his experience, Mukund, only 27, has been brought back into the Test squad after last playing in the longer format for the country on the disastrous tour of England in 2011.
What many may find more surprising was that Parthiv Patel, him of the outstanding return to Test after being out for eight years, had to miss out. Patel was one of those openers, though in the make-shift role, who scored two fifties in that slot including the century opening stand with Rahul, the only three-figure partnership for that wicket in all those 19 Tests since Fatullah 2015.
If the idea of bringing in Mukund was to give the left-hand option at the top of the order, Patel would also have given that. But the reason given to keep Patel, who was not the first-choice wicketkeeper as Wriddhiman Saha is back fully fit, was that he was not a regular opener.
"The selectors wanted a regular opener and not a make-shift one for Tests. Also, India do not have two wicketkeepers in a Test squad at home and that Parthiv being a senior player, they did not want to embarrass him by keeping him out of the 11 while still having him in the 16-man squad," said sources in the know of things.
Patel, though, has been given the assurance that he would be the second 'keeper when India tour abroad.
India's chief coach Anil Kumble said here on Tuesday that Mukund "brings in not just the experience of playing at the international level but also lots of runs in the domestic season just gone by".
Asked if the Test opening was still a concern, Kumble said: "Not really. Murali Vijay and KL Rahul have played wonderfully well in the last series. It's just that you need a back-up opener just in case something happens on the day of the match. As far we are concerned, the openers have always had some issues, be it in the last home series or in the series leading up to it. Abhinav has been in good form. It's a reward to what he's been able to achieve in the domestic season."
What about Nair?
Just like Patel, Karun Nair may also consider himself unlucky should he not figure in the starting line-up on Thursday. In his previous Test innings, only his third, he scored an unbeaten 303 against England in Chennai. But, now that Ajinkya Rahane is fit, the Mumbaikar earns the right to regain his place at No. 5, going by the selection committee stance that "Saha has been out of the side not because of form", the same logic applies here too.
Kumble, though not decided on the 11, said: "It is nice that Karun took the opportunity and did what he did in Chennai. It is fantastic for a youngster to come and score a triple hundred. We all know what Ajinkya has done for India. His performances have been phenomenal across conditions. It is nice that somebody who has come in to replace because of injury in Mumbai, and just three innings later, he was able to score a triple hundred. It is nice to have that kind of ability and that kind of contribution coming in from youngsters as well."
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 "Abhinav Mukund")
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