India, May 28 -- Last week, India's selectors announced an 18-man squad to tour England for a five-Test series starting in three weeks. Eighteen is not a huge number when one considers that these five games are packed in a six-and-a-half-week window. Almost astonishingly, though, this extended squad contains only a single specialist middle-order batter, assuming that the most experienced of the specialist batters, KL Rahul, has been picked as an opener.

There is a logjam at the top, in a manner of speaking - for positions 1, 2 and 3. New Test skipper Shubman Gill hasn't batted below No. 3 in 59 Test innings. All 36 of Yashasvi Jaiswal's Test knocks have been as an opener. The uncapped duo of Sai Sudharsan and Abhimanyu Easwaran are top-o...