Rohit Sharma has ended all speculation over his batting position by announcing on the eve of the day-night Test in Adelaide that he will drop down the order to allow KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal to continue as openers.

The regular India captain had missed the first Test against Australia which India won by 295 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series. Rohit made it clear that Rahul and Jaiswal have done too well as an opening pair, a 201-run stand in the second innings of the Perth Test, to set up India’s victory.

This is the first time Rohit will be dropping down the order since opening against South Africa in Visakhapatnam in October 2019. Rohit smashed 176 and set up a 317-run opening partnership with Mayank Agarwal.

“How I came to that decision of batting down the order is because we want results, we want success,” Rohit said on Thursday. “And those two guys at the top — just looking at this one Test match — they batted brilliantly... It was brilliant to watch, to be honest.

“And I felt that there’s no need to change that now. Maybe in the future things will be different, I don’t know... To have that big partnership with Jaiswal on the other side probably won us the Test.”

Team first is the philosophy that has been pushing the visitors into picking their playing XI. They left out the experienced spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in Perth.

“It’s always hard to leave out experienced players like Jadeja and Ashwin,” Rohit said. “I certainly see them playing a huge role in the rest of the series.”

While Rohit didn’t reveal much about the combination for the second Test, Ashwin might get a look-in considering his experience of playing with the new ball. The off spinner grabbed 4/55 in Australia’s first innings in their last day-night game in 2020.

Rohit praised the fearless attitude of youngsters like Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant which is making a difference in the series.

“The youngsters nowadays are fearless. They don’t carry any baggage. Jaiswal, Gill, Pant — these are the cricketers of a different generation,” Rohit said.

How they come up against the home team, who are well-versed with the conditions, could decide the fate of the series.