Agarwal backed for India opening berth

Former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar believes Mayank Agarwal should make his debut in the Boxing Day Test, but has warned against expecting too much from the uncapped opener.

Agarwal has been rushed into India's squad for the final two Tests of the series against Australia, after Prithvi Shaw failed to recover from the ankle injury he picked up in a tour match last month.

Murali Vijay and KL Rahul have opened the batting for India during the first two Tests, but neither batsman has set the world on fire from their four innings so far this series.

Vijay has just 49 runs and a best score of 20, while Rahul has fared no better with a highest knock of 44 alongside three failures of two or less.

India captain Virat Kohli has indicated he will back his under fire openers to hit back in Melbourne if selected, but Manjrekar believes a new opening combination should be considered for the crucial Test.

"I will personally still go (open) with Mayank Agarwal and Murali Vijay," Manjrekar told IndiaTV.

"Even if you play Mayank Agarwal, we should not have high expectations because it is extremely tough for an Indian batsman to straight away go into a Test match on an Australian pitch, especially at the top of the order, where the Kookaburra ball does a lot."

Manjrekar said the other option India should ponder is to show some faith in Hanuma Vihari and promote the inexperienced middle order batsman to the top of the order.

Vihari looked comfortable against the Australia attack in Perth, getting starts in both innings to finish with scores of 20 and 28 in just his second Test match.

"These are Australian conditions. Hanuma Vihari, when you see him bat, you get an impression that this is a guy, who has a good technique. His scoring shots are straight in front of the wicket and he seems calm temperamentally," Manjrekar noted.

"He is clearly a batsman who has the game to bat at (number) one, two and three. So the sense is there having Vihari bat at the top of the order.

"So if India does not want to take that risk and put undue pressure on Agarwal, then Vihari is an option (to open the innings)."

Domain Test Series v India

Dec 6-10: India won by 31 runs

Dec 14-18: Australia won by 146 runs

Dec 26-30: Third Test, MCG

Jan 3-7: Fourth Test, SCG

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c, wk), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Mitch Marsh (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Archie Schiller

India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravi Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar