IND vs WI: Rahul Must Open In Dhawan's Absence, Suggests Laxman

After slamming fifty against Bangladesh in the third T20I, Rahul has shown great form in the Syed Mushtaq Ali as he has scored two fifties in six games

After registering a clinical win over Bangladesh, Virat Kohli and his men are gearing up to host West Indies for a limited-overs bilateral series at home. Despite having a bunch of in-form players in the dressing room, the team management likely to deal with the opening conundrum in the absence of Shikhar Dhawan. The left-arm batsman was ruled out of the 3 T20Is following a knee injury. He has been replaced by Sanju Samson who is yet to represent India. Meanwhile, former batsman VVS Laxman feels that it will be interesting to see how the management fits KL Rahul into the team as regular skipper Virat Kohli is back in the team after skipping the T20I series against Bangladesh. “The big question is that with Virat Kohli back and K.L. Rahul doing a good job batting at number three so then where will he fit? I believe that it is time that K.L. Rahul opens with Rohit Sharma. I would definitely have Rahul open with Rohit for the West Indies Series,” said Laxman. Laxman said he is also very impressed with the way Shreyas Iyer grabbed his opportunity in the series against Bangladesh. He feels that the way Iyer held the fort in the final game of the series was impressive. “I was very impressed with the way Shreyas Iyer has batted so far. The best part about him was when during the last T20 International in Nagpur when India lost their top 3 batsmen, he had the ability to assess the condition very well and was very versatile in his approach. “When Rahul was the aggressor he played second fiddle and the moment Rahul got out and Rishabh Pant came to the crease under pressure and was not able to rotate the strike, Shreyas Iyer just registered that and changed his gear and that is what you want at a number four,” he said. After hitting 52 against Bangladesh in the third game of the T20I series, Rahul has now shown great form in the Syed Mushtaq Ali as well as he has scored two fifties in six games. The India-West Indies T20I series will start on December 6 and will be telecast live on Star Sports network from 6.