5 opening partners for Rohit Sharma in the Champions Trophy

#2 KL Rahul

Rahul might be picked in the squad as the third opener

KL Rahul has had a great start to his international career. After scoring a Test century on debut, the Karnataka batsman became the first Indian to score a century on his ODI debut and in just his third T20I, he became the third Indian batsman to score a century in all the three formats.

After the promise he showed earlier, a lot was expected from him in the ODI series against England. All the three matches saw 300 being breached easily but Rahul failed big time as he scored just 24 runs in the three matches combined.

With these performances, his place in the Indian XI for the Champions Trophy is under threat. The 24-year-old is yet to play in England and it will be a big gamble if the team management prefers the Karnataka batsman to open with Rohit. Instead, it will be better if Rahul is in the team as the third opener alongside Rohit and Dhawan.