After New Zealand's win over Sri Lanka, India confirmed their place in the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) against Australia, to be held in June at The Oval in England. Prior to the tournament, the side will be happy with their performance in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which India won 2-1 courtesy of a draw in the fourth Test in England.
India's star wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant is out of action for a long time after his major accident in December 2022, and in his absence, KL Rahul has picked up the mantle of India's wicketkeeping gloves, atleast in limited-overs cricket. Against Australia, the reins were handed to KS Bharat, but one former cricketing legend believes that Rahul should be the glovesman for India, instead of Bharat.
More notably, Rahul was dropped in the last two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar series following a string of low scores.
Speaking exclusive to Sports Tak, Gavaskar said, "You can see KL Rahul as a wicketkeeper. If he bats at No. 5 or 6 at the Oval (in the WTC final) then our batting will be stronger. Because he batted really well in England last year. He scored a century at the Lord's. Keep KL Rahul in mind when you pick your XI for the WTC final."
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He made this suggestion after Dinesh Karthik highlighted the issues in KS Bharat's technique while commentating during the Ahmedabad Test between India and Australia."Dinesh Karthik summed up the problems with his wicketkeeping quite beautifully. The real test of a wicketkeeper is on pitches like these where the ball is turning. If you look at Travis Head's dismissal, when the ball turned and hit his stumps, KS Bharat's gloves were nowhere near the ball.
That means, if the ball hadn't hit the stumps, it would have resulted in 4 byes. This is definitely a cause for concern. Whether they will select him in the XI or not is up to the selection committee but in England, you won't get pitches where the keeper has to stand up to the stumps. In that case, you can pick KL Rahul as a wicketkeeper and even Ishan Kishan can be considered. Their batting is better than Bharat's," Gavaskar added.
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Rahul only managed to score 38 runs across the three innings, with Shubman Gill opening the batting in the final team Tests. Gill had an immediate impact at the top, scoring a century in India's first innings in the fourth Test with India chasing a mighty first innings total of 480 runs.
