KL Rahul, India's senior batter, did not make the most of the opportunity and could manage only 12 runs during the first Test of the series against New Zealand at Bengaluru. According to captain Rohit Sharma, he would have played well for the side, as he used to do in South Africa, but Rahul faced numerous struggles, facing heavy blows from quality pace bowling and thereafter, his place in the playing XI has come under the scrutiny once again. Former cricketer Manoj Tiwary feels there are numerous batters doing well in domestic cricket who could replace Rahul in the Test team. Also Read | After 36 years, New Zealand Archives Historic Win By Defeating India In the 1st Test match He mentioned Bengal batter Abhimanyu Easwaran, who has long been with the side but had never been in the fray for a Test cap. The 29-year-old recently hit back-to-back centuries in the Duleep Trophy, another one in the Irani Cup and even in the opening round of the Ranji Trophy against Uttar Pradesh. In all, he scored four back-to-back centuries and keeping that in mind, Tiwary backed Easwaran to replace Rahul. “If you play 91 innings, and have an average of 33.98… India has a lot of batters who are performing well consistently, even in domestic cricket, so why not (rethink KL Rahul’s spot)?” Tiwary told Cricbuzz. “If in a Test match, you can get a performance out of Sarfaraz by sending him at No. 4… I feel Abhimanyu Easwaran is a player, whom we have definitely given that ‘opener’ tag, and he is a specialist opener, but if you look at his numbers, there were hardly any innings in the last few matches he played where he did not score a century. So, bring him in, and try him as a middle-order batter, given that he is in form. Why not?” he added.