India’s St Lucia Test batting selection riddle

On Sunday night, Cheteshwar Pujara posted a group selfie on Instagram. In it, sharing a dinner table, were himself, Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay and KL Rahul.

“When we r together,” Pujara captioned it, “we make the most out of our time.”

On Tuesday morning, the four of them will not be together on the team sheet Virat Kohli hands to the match referee. Three will line up at the top of India’s batting order. The fourth will find a place near the bottom of the list, among the substitutes.

“Cricket is a very uncertain game at times,” Kohli said when he was asked the inevitable question on Monday. “Injuries are not in anyone’s hands. Even in the IPL, I remember a game where Mandeep Singh was fit and set to play. While I was at the toss he split his webbing. KL [Rahul] got a chance and he hasn’t looked back since. We conveyed to Mandeep that unfortunately it was an injury and nothing can be done about that.

“We need to look at the balance of the side. Good thing is all three openers are playing well. Bad thing is that you can only choose two between three. That is a call we need to take as management. We’ll sit down today and do that. These things are not in your control, getting injured when playing well. That’s why they say injuries can really upset people and bring them down. The good thing is Vijay has been in a good headspace. He’s back to the nets and back to fielding. We’ll take a call on that. We still have to discuss that.”

Vijay is the equivalent of Mandeep in this situation. He injured his thumb during the first Test, and missed the second. Rahul replaced him and scored 158.

But that is where the comparison ends. Mandeep and Rahul were more or less equal contenders for a spot in Royal Challengers Bangalore’s line-up in that …

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