India's opening conundrum: Who will miss out?

Almost exactly a year ago, India's selectors left Shikhar Dhawan out of the Test squad. Or rather, he was ignored, despite him having recovered from a thumb injury that had kept him out of the first two Tests against England. The selectors said they would consider him after he played at least two more Ranji Trophy games to prove his fitness and form.

Dhawan remained out of the squad when India played a one-off Test against Bangladesh in early 2017, and for the duration of the four-Test series against Australia. He wasn't really in the picture when India toured Sri Lanka in late July: India's two main openers were M Vijay and KL Rahul, and their reserve opener was Abhinav Mukund.

Fate, however, would thrust Dhawan back into Test-match whites. First, Vijay was ruled out of the Sri Lanka tour when a long-term wrist injury resurfaced. Then, two days before the start of the series, viral fever ruled Rahul out of the first Test.

Enter Dhawan, who promptly scored 190, 14, 35 and 119 in the three Tests, hurtling through the series at a strike rate of 104.67, and made life extremely difficult for Sri Lanka's bowlers and fielders, for Abhinav (who scored a second-innings 81 in the first Test and still had to make way for Rahul's return), and for everyone tasked with sitting down to pick India's next Test XI.

On Thursday morning, when India begin another Test series against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens, Virat Kohli will have to pick two out of Dhawan, Rahul, who has made half-centuries in each of his last seven Test innings, and Vijay, who is now back to full fitness.

"That situation has always been a thing that has... the balance has swung every now and then between guys doing well and one of them missing out," Kohli said on the eve of the match. "It happened with KL initially, it happened with Shikhar in between, and now that Shikhar and KL have been playing well, it is very difficult to pick two out of three when all three are so good and have done so well.

"I think Shikhar's comeback has been a revelation for himself and the team as well. His counter-attacking skills were something that really gave all the batsmen a platform to work on. And also it deflates the opposition. So they all have different skill sets, they all have different strengths, but like I said, the balance always shifts and one of them has to miss out, and they do understand. There's no problem with that."

Kohli didn't really answer the question of whom he would leave out, but one possible interpretation of his response was that he wanted Dhawan's counter-attacking skills at the top of the order, and that it was now Vijay's turn to miss out.

If this is so, it will be an understandable but difficult choice.

Since the start of the long 2016-17 home season - as has been the case for much of his career - Vijay's numbers haven't been hugely impressive, on the surface: 12 Tests, 771 runs, three hundreds, three fifties, an average of 36.71. Even Wriddhiman Saha, Ravindra Jadeja and Jayant Yadav boast better averages in this period, while Rahul and Dhawan have averaged over 50.

But a deeper look at Vijay's figures reveals how important his contributions have been. While his second-innings average - 17 - hasn't been great, he has more often than not delivered in the first innings - where he has averaged 51.50 - particularly when India have batted second and replied to big first-innings totals. Two of his hundreds, in Rajkot and Mumbai, and an expertly paced 82 in Ranchi - which would have gained more attention had he not been stumped in the last over before lunch on day three - set up India's responses to 450-plus English and Australian totals.

In this period, he also played through a wrist injury that restricted some of his strokeplay.

There is also the question of where India's Test team goes after this series: back-to-back tours of South Africa, England, Australia and New Zealand. The last time India made that sort of world tour, from December 2013 to January 2015, Vijay was among their most impressive performers, facing more balls than any other Indian batsman, and ending up as one of only three to average above 40.

Dhawan endured a patchy time on those tours, scoring 115 and 98 in New Zealand but passing 50 only once in 18 innings either side of those knocks. Rahul, meanwhile, began his Test career in Australia, the last of those four tours, playing the last two Tests and scoring a century in Sydney.

Then, like now, the stretch of away tours began in South Africa, where Vijay first unveiled the Test-match approach he is now largely identified with, defined by a willingness to leave balls outside off stump and wear out the new-ball bowlers.

It's an approach India might require when they go to Cape Town in January, but that is still a month-and-a-half away. Right now, they are about to start a home series against Sri Lanka, happy to have the headache of three quality openers in their squad, each bringing something unique to the table.