Gautam Gambhir puts faith in KL Rahul ahead of IND vs AUS 1st Test: ‘If Rohit is not there…’

India head coach Gautam Gambhir has heaped praises on wicketkeeper batter KL Rahul ahead of the first Border Gavaskar Trophy match at Perth. Gambhir also confirmed that Rahul could be one of the options that team management opts for in case captain Rohit Sharma is not available during the Perth Test. 

Speaking at a press conference ahead of leaving for Australia, Gambhir stressed the versatile nature of KL Rahul's batting with the ability to go anywhere in the batting lineup as the team required. 

“KL Rahul can bat in the top order, he can bat at 3, he can play at 6 - so you need a lot of talent to do all these jobs & he keeps in ODIs - imagine how many countries have players like KL and he is one of the options if Rohit is not available,” Gambhir said

Meanwhile, Gambhir also confirmed that Abhimanyu Easwaran and KL Rahul are the two options considered by team management in case Rohit is not available to open during 1st Test. He said, “There is KL (Rahul) there. There’s Abhimanyu Easwaran there. So, we will take a call closer to the first Test match if Rohit is not available. It’s not that there are no options. There are quite a lot of options in the squad,”