The India Cricket Team will be locking horns with South Africa in the IND vs SA 1st Test on 26th December. Team India is set and will be raring to go from the start, but quite a few players will be forced to play out of their preferred spot. These includes the likes of KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and even potentially Virat Kohli to some extent.
The reason for this change is pretty simple. India is not likely to open with their traditional openers of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill. On the contrary as happened in the India Tour of West Indies, young southpaw Yashasvi Jaiswal is tipped to open proceedings with Rohit.
This move will force Shubman Gill to play at number 3 while Virat Kohli is likely to settle down at Number 4. So far, Gill has featured at Number 3 in 4 innings and hasn’t fared well so far.
On the other hand, this move will force Shreyas Iyer to move down a place and bat at number 5 while keeper and batter KL Rahul will have to play anchor down at number 6. Iyer is traditionally a top order batter and prefers the 3-4 spot. But with Gill and Kohli taking his spot, he will look to build a partnership with KL Rahul down the lower order.
Shreyas Iyer STATS in Tests
| Spot | Inns | 100s | 50s | HS | Runs | Avg |
| 5 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 105 | 218 | 36.33 |
| 6 | 9 | 0 | 4 | 92 | 419 | 46.56 |
| 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 29* | 29 | |
| Overall | 16 | 1 | 5 | 105 | 666 | 44.4 |
KL Rahul STATS in Tests
| Spot | Inns | 100s | 50s | HS | Runs | Avg |
| Opening | 75 | 7 | 12 | 199 | 2551 | 34.95 |
| 3 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 54 | 88 | 17.6 |
| 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Overall | 81 | 7 | 13 | 199 | 2642 | 33.44 |
While this move is beneficial for Iyer, it not the case for KL Rahul. Iyer has played 5 innings batting at number 5 and has managed 218 runs with a solitary century. On the other hand, KL Rahul has spent the most of his career opening the innings. At number 6 he has played only once where he managed to score just 3 runs. As a result, it will surely be a big challenge for both to step up and score, given they are retuning to the Test setup after 10 months.
