India's legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar has given his verdict on KL Rahul and KS Bharat's debate on whether who will be featuring in Team India's playing XI for the all-important World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia.
India and Australia will be up against each other for the ultimate drama of WTC 2023 final which will be on display between June 7 to June 11 at the Oval.
It will be tough battle between Rahul and Bharat for the wicketkeeper's slot since Rishabh Pant will be out of the action as he is going through a rehab at the NCA after suffering multiple injuries in a horrific car crash last year. Notably, Bharat kept for wickets for Team India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in February-March while Rahul was dropped from the Playing XI after his horror show with the bat in the first two Tests.
But Gavaskar picked Rahul over Bharat when he was asked to pick India's playing XI for WTC final. "Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill will be my opening picks, Cheteshwar Pujara at three, Virat Kohli at four, Ajinkya Rahane at five, KL Rahul at six who'll keep the wickets as well. Then there will be Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin, followed by Jaidev Unadkat, Mohammed Shami and Mohd Siraj," said Gavaskar while speaking on Star Sports' Cricket Live.
However, he said that we will have to wait and see to know the answer of this million dollar question of whether who will get to feature in the final XI for India in the high-octane clash.
"The question now is in the final eleven, who's going to be playing? Whether it will be KS Bharat the wicket-keeper or KL Rahul. We'll just have to wait and see," said Gavaskar.
Gavaskar also gave his two cent on Ajinkya Rahane's inclusion in India's Test squad for the WTC final.
"That was the only change needed for the Indian side. They needed a replacement for Shreyas Iyer. Ajinkya Rahane finds himself in the WTC squad not because of his current IPL form, mind you, he was in a pretty decent form in the Ranji Trophy. He did very well for Mumbai in the domestic season," he added.
After his dismal outing with the bat in the South Africa series Rahane was dropped from the squad but he didn't give up and went back to the domestic set-up to figure out his shortcomings. He succeeded in his efforts and piled lots of runs in the Ranji Trophy with his spectacular batting and drew selector's attention yet again. Not just this, he also unleashed a new avatar in the IPL 2023 playing for CSK where he has been scoring runs with a lightning strike rate of 199.
India's squad for WTC final: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, K L Rahul, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat
Australia's squad for WTC final: Pat Cummins (captain), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner.
MORE TO SPORTS TAK:
‘There was no other solution other than…’: Harbhajan Singh's big remark on Rahane's selection for WTC final
Wrestlers vs WFI: DCW wants FIR to be filed against Police officers for not lodging case against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh
After match-winning 104 in run chase vs Pakistan, Mark Chapman jumps 48 places in ICC T20I rankings
