Duleep Trophy, openers' last chance to impress

The last time Indian openers added 50 in a Test away from home was in July 2011 at Lord's. India have played 16 away Tests since then, they have tried five different combinations over the period, and there is no surprise they have won only one of those Tests. M Vijay has at least given them one option, but the other opener was a miserable failure in England this summer. The only consolation for Shikhar Dhawan was that Gautam Gambhir, his replacement for the last two Tests, fared even worse. That makes the Duleep Trophy semi-finals, beginning on Wednesday in Rohtak and Mohali, a golden opportunity for all the domestic openers around India.

When Virender Sehwag and Gambhir were dropped from the Test side during the 2012-13 home season, it seemed like the doors were being shut. However, in India, especially if you are an opening batsman, you are almost never ruled out. There have been murmurs around that Sehwag is more than just a wild fancy when it comes to going to Australia at the end of the year. That also seems apparent from the fact that he is in the zonal side despite not having scored even a first-class fifty since his century in Ahmedabad in November 2012. He is 36, which is not beyond the sell-by date in Test cricket, and he is used to making comebacks for Australia tours without having set the domestic scene alight.

Gambhir won't count himself out despite four failures in England where he scored 25 runs. Simply because there aren't many great options bringing the selectors' door down by knocking on it. Gambhir, who is now the captain of North Zone with Harbhajan Singh out with a viral infection, will have to choose between Sehwag and Punjab's Jiwanjot Singh as his opening partner. After a bumper first season where he scored more than 1000 first-class runs, 23-year-old Jiwanjot backed it up by averaging 40 in the 2013-14 season. The feeling, though, is that he isn't ready yet for a Test role, but it will be interesting to see if he gets a go against Central Zone at his home ground in Mohali.

In the other match, between South Zone and East Zone in Rohtak, Abhinav Mukund, who was part of India's last 50-run opening away from home, gets a solid chance to force him way back into the reckoning. His prospective opening partners are Karnataka's Robin Uthappa and KL Rahul. Rahul has been earmarked as a promising prospect by experts, he opened against Australia A in Australia, and was set to open against West Indies in a warm-up game before the Tests until they pulled out of the tour. Now he has been drafted into the South Zone side.

With no home Tests this season, and with the Ranji Trophy starting after India begin their first Test in Australia, these are the last two first-class matches where selectors can have a look at the players before they decide on the three best choices for the opening slots in Australia. At the moment, only Vijay is a certainty. While Dhawan will look to re-earn the faith through runs in the ODIs against Sri Lanka, others have these two matches to make a statement.