India batsman Hanuma Vihari was not a part of the first Test that India won by 113 runs but in the second Test Vihari did earn a spot but unfortunately the results were not pretty favourable as the visitors had to suffer a defeat by 7 wickets. The 28-year-old batsman scored 20 in the first innings and 40 in the second innings.
The third Test match, scheduled to be started on January 11, is bound to see a change in the team as skipper Virat Kohli is set to make a comeback in the squad. At a situation like this former India batsman Gautam Gambhir feels that it would be “very unfortunate” if Vihari does not find his place in the third Test which will be played in Cape Town. According to the former opening batsman, Vihari might have scored a half-century if he had come down to bat at number four.
‘Very unfortunate if he does not play’
“It will be very unfortunate if he doesn’t play the next Test because if Rahane has scored a fifty, then Hanuma Vihari has also scored 40 not out. If Hanuma Vihari had batted at that number instead of Rahane, probably he would have also scored a fifty,” Gambhir said during a television interaction.
“The control with which Vihari has batted in both the innings, you want to give such a batter a long rope. It should not be that you play him a match, then leave him out and play him the next Test after six months or a year,” he added.
No place for Rahane?
The former World Cup-winning batsman also thinks that when Test team skipper Kohli comes back to the squad in the final Test match of the series he should bat at number four instead of Ajinkya Rahane.
Rahane did score a half-century in the second innings of the second Test but apart from that particular knock the 33-year-old batsman did not have a pretty memorable series so far. Till now, Rahane has managed to score 48, 20, 0 and 58 in four innings respectively.
“We have seen for a long time what performance Rahane has given. I believe when Virat Kohli comes in the next Test match, he bats at number 4 in place of Rahane and Vihari bats at number five.
“It’s the right move and right direction going forward as well because if the team management has backed Rahane so much, the time has come to back Hanuma Vihari as much because he has looked very solid in both innings,” Gambhir explained.
