Abhinav Mukund

Abhinav Mukund is a fluent batsman through the off side with a penchant for big scores. Before his 20th birthday, this left-hand Tamil Nadu opener had to his name a triple-century, hundreds on Ranji and Irani Trophy debuts, and a quadruple-century opening stand for his state side with fellow India Test opener, M Vijay. A batsman who in his early seasons showed some weakness in his on-side game - often playing around the front pad - Abhinav has gone on to score runs in bulk, consistently.

When picked in India's squad for the U-19 World Cup in Malaysia in 2008, Abhinav ran into poor form and didn't get a game during India's World Cup victory. However, he came back and followed it up with the triple-century, and loads of other runs. After four seasons of first-class cricket, Abhinav averaged 60, and was chosen to open for India after both Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir were injured before India's tour of the West Indies in 2011. A couple of steady knocks in the Test series got him into the squad for the England tour that followed, as the reserve opener.

Following that tour, Abhinav was not considered for Tests but he went back to representing India A several times. He had a standout 2016-17 Ranji Trophy season, scoring 849 runs including four hundreds. That made Abhinav India's first-choice reserve-opener in Tests as he was selected as back-up for India's first home Test against Bangladesh in February 2017. He had to wait till the Bengaluru Test in March against Australia to make his return though, before a string of injuries to India's openers on the tour of Sri Lanka had him feature in the tour's first Test in Galle. He posted 81 in the game's second innings, his highest Test score till date.
ESPNcricinfo staff