Openers enjoy each other's success: Lokesh Rahul

COLOMBO: India have a problem of plenty, especially at the top of the order. There are three batsmen now vying for the two openers' slots, and all three are in good form.Shikhar Dhawan benefitted from Lokesh Rahul's illness to get a game in Fatullah, and promptly scored a century. Rahul regained his place in the next Test in Galle due to injury to Murali Vijay, and also in the second Test here now that Dhawan has flown back to India.It'll be a hard call for the selectors when Dhawan gets fit as Rahul did his chances no harm with his second Test ton. Both of them have come away from home."From the team's point of view, it is a great place to be in. All your openers are getting runs and with every given opportunity, all of us are making the best use of it. When it comes to the three of us, we are enjoying each other's success. We are spending a lot of time together at the nets, talking to each other, trying to give each other a lot of inputs and talking about the bowlers," Rahul said about the openers' camaraderie here on Thursday.The Karnataka opener's initiation into Test cricket has not been an easy one. All his Tests have been in difficult 'away' conditions but the two tons in Sydney and now in Colombo have been of top quality."Both have been very difficult hundreds and in very difficult and challenging conditions for me. I didn't get runs in the first Test and to come here and play like the way I did was very satisfying for me individually," the 23-year-old opener said.A man with solid technique behind him, the one chink in Rahul's armour is the hook shot. At Melbourne, he was dismissed chasing a high bouncer wide outside his off-stump off Mitchell Johnson. His dismissal on Thursday was very similar as he flirted this time with Dushmantha Chameera's pacy delivery."It is very disappointing that the shot you love to play the most gets you out a lot. For me it's a good learning curve. When I am playing international cricket, playing different speeds and bowlers who are taller and hitting the deck harder, it's not like first-class cricket so it's something that I have to work on and discipline myself," he said.Follow TOI Sports on Twitter >>> @TOISportsNews