Ravi Shastri at an India training session. (AFP)
India are in search of their first ICC trophy in 10 years. They had reached the last edition of the WTC Final too but were edged out by New Zealand
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri feels that the team’s wicketkeeper for the past few Tests KS Bharat is still not up to scratch at the highest level and with regular wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant yet to recover from injuries sustained in a car accident, Rohit Sharma and Co should select the best option available for the ICC World Test Championship Final. Shastri batted strongly in favour of KL Rahul to don the stumper’s gloves for the marquee contest against Australia to be played at the Oval in London from June 7-11.
“KL Rahul should be keeping. Clear-cut. You don’t have to keep much to the spinners. At No. 5 or 6, he can strengthen the batting and can keep wickets too. Of course, he can also keep in Tests because you have to see the all-round strength. It’s not like the ‘keeper that we have right now is so good that he can’t be dropped. He is also a newcomer, KS Bharat and he will learn with exposure, but for this one-off big game, you have to weigh all the options,” Shastri said on the sidelines of the Legends League Cricket (LLC) Masters in Doha, according to a Hindustan Times report.
Also read – ‘He’s Done Well to Keep Selectors Interested’: Not Bharat but Shastri Picks Another Keeper for WTC Final
“He (KL) has really done well to keep the selectors interested ahead of the WTC final,” Shastri had told Star Sports earlier. “Rahul can bat in the middle-order – No. 5 or 6. In England, you have to generally keep wickets from far behind. You don’t have to keep up to the spinners a lot.”
While Rahul has not yet kept wickets in Tests, he has experience doing it in white-ball cricket. As the team’s designated wicketkeeper, he has effected 22 dismissals (20 catches and two stumpings) in 17 ODIs and five dismissals (four catches and one stumping) in eight T20Is. He has been keeping wickets in the ongoing ODI series against Australia as well and it is indeed a fact that much like current coach Rahul Dravid back in the day, Rahul can give the team an extra edge and depth by taking over wicketkeeping duties despite not being a ‘regular’.
What works in Rahul’s favour also is his reasonably good Test batting record in England, where he has managed 614 runs in 18 innings, including two centuries. Rahul, however, has had a string of low scores of late in the five-day format and one has to go 11 innings back to find his last Test fifty. Rahul was dropped from the playing eleven after the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in Delhi following heavy criticism, including by former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad. However, Rahul made some amends by scoring a sparkling unbeaten half-century against the odds in the first ODI of the ongoing series against Australia and showed signs of getting back into form.
Also read – ‘India has Lot of Bases Covered’: Ex-Australia Captain Shows Faith In India’s Pace Attack Ahead Of WTC Final
However, considering the absence of Pant, who faced a near-fatal car crash a few months back, India’s unwillingness to go back to Wriddhiman Saha, and the modest performance of Bharat with the bat and gloves in the recently-concluded Australia series, Rahul does look to be the best option available for the WTC Final.
India are in search of their first ICC trophy in 10 years since Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s side lifted the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013. India had reached the last edition of the WTC Final too but were edged out by New Zealand.
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