India have a huge blow with Rishabh Pant getting injured and will miss the final of the World Test Championship. On December 30, Pant was involved in a terrible vehicle accident while en route to Roorkie. He had several injuries, which kept him from playing cricket for at least a year. In his knee, he tore three important ligaments; two of them were just rebuilt, and surgery on the third is anticipated in six weeks.
KS Bharat replaced Pant in the Border Gavaskar Trophy. In his debut series, Bharat was nervous while keeping and was not up to the standards. He missed easy opportunities behind the stumps. He was average with the bat but the pitches too were challenging.
Indian Legend Sunil Gavaskar feels that KL Rahul can keep wickets during the final of the World Test Championship in place of KS Bharat. Rahul has a good record in England and was the standout performer in the last series.
“You can see KL Rahul as a wicketkeeper. If he bats at No.5 or 6 in 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,” Gavaskar told Sports Tak.
Karthik points out mistakes in Bharat’s keeping
Gavaskar emphasized Dinesh Karthik’s remarks on Bharat’s struggles as a keeper and claimed that selecting Rahul for just that one Test will provide the Indian batting unit greater depth.
“Dinesh Karthik summed up the problems with his wicketkeeping quite beautifully (during commentary). 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,” he added.
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