The opening partnership stitched together at the eleventh hour by India before the first Test will remain in place as captain Rohit Sharma revealed he will return to the middle order for tomorrow’s day-night contest against Australia.

Rohit also pried the selection door ajar for Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja with India on the verge of a generational shift. If neither play in Adelaide, it will mark the first time ever in the duo’s careers that both have been overlooked for consecutive Tests.

Shubman Gill is a presumed starter for the visitors at No.3 after missing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series opener due to a thumb injury.

Rohit was also absent in Perth, due to the birth of his second child, a son named Ahaan, who the 37-year-old said was in his arms while he watched his replacement, KL Rahul, put on a record 201-run opening stand with Yashasvi Jaiswal.

India’s skipper, who arrived in Australia before the first Test finished, suggested the second-innings opening partnership was the single biggest factor in their 295-run victory and is now loathe to break it up.

It means the right-hander will bat down the order for the first time in six years.

“(Rahul) will be opening the batting. I’ll be somewhere in the middle,” Rohit told reporters on Thursday.

“Those two guys at the top – just looking at this one Test match (in Perth) – they batted brilliantly.

“I was at home with my newborn in my arms and I was watching how KL batted and it was brilliant, to be honest. I felt there was no need to change that now.

“Maybe in the future things will be different, I don’t know. Based on what has happened and what KL has shown outside of India, he probably deserves that place at this point in time.

“It is something that has given us success in the first Test to have that partnership with Jaiswal. It probably won us the Test match. When you come here to a place like Perth and you get (nearly) 500 runs (in the second innings – 6-487d), it’s a massive tick of the box.

“I don’t see the need to change that. It was actually pretty simple for me – personally not easy – but for the team, it made a lot of sense.”

Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel, who batted at three and six respectively in Perth, shape as the likely omissions should Gill join Rohit in taking his spot back in the side.

There could be further change with Rohit implying the shock inclusion of Washington Sundar for the first Test over Ashwin and Jadeja was a conditions-based call rather than a sign the 25-year-old is now ahead in the pecking order of the legendary spin pair who have more than 800 Test wickets between them.

Washington made his debut when both Ashwin and Jadeja were injured for India’s famous Gabba Test victory in 2021. But injury – and that duo’s dominance, on home soil in particular – meant Perth was just his seventh Test in almost four years.

The fact the allrounder averages nearly 50 with the bat (48.37) and under 25 with the ball (23.91) in Tests underscores what a promising player he is.

But Rohit’s insistence Jadeja (who turns 36 on day one of the Adelaide Test) and Ashwin (38) still have an important part to play in this series threatens Washington’s spot.

Perth marked just the sixth time since Ashwin’s debut in November 2011 (13 months before Jadeja made his Test bow) that India have left both out of their XI, a span of 130 Tests. During that period, they have never omitted both for consecutive matches.

“Unfortunately I was not there to bring this news to them,” Rohit said when asked about the omissions of the prolific wicket-taking pair who were joint players of the series in last year’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in India.

“It’s always hard to leave experienced players like Jadeja and Ashwin (out). The decision that was made was best for the team at that particular point in time and whatever the management felt at the right was the right thing to do, we did that.

“But I certainly see them playing a huge role in the rest of the series.

“What they bring to the table will never be written off. They are quality players and whatever success Indian cricket has had over the past few years is largely because off these two guys as well.

“We will never count (out) their performances for the team and what they’ve done for the team.

“It’s important for us to realise certain grounds here will bring certain players into the game a lot more … we try and make decisions on what we see in front of us.”

NRMA Insurance Men’s Test Series v India

First Test: India won by 295 runs

Second Test: December 6-10: Adelaide Oval, 3pm AEDT (D/N)

Third Test: December 14-18: The Gabba, Brisbane, 11.20am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad (for second Test): Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Brendan Doggett, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal