India will aim to end their 10-year-long wait for an ICC trophy when they square off against Australia in the final of the World Test Championship from June 7 to 11 at the Oval. Under Virat Kohli, India made it to the final of the WTC 2021 but fell short against New Zealand.
This year, India will take on Australia, the team which they defeated in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The conditions in England will be much different from those in India and keeping that in mind, Sunil Gavaskar has suggested a surprising name to be India’s wicketkeeper in that fixture.
Speaking to Sports Tak, India legend asked Team India to keep KL Rahul in mind when picking the playing XI. Rahul, who was supposed to stay on the bench in the series, shone for the visitors in 2021 and scored 315 runs in four matches. His success in that series saw him cement his spot. But Rahul has struggled in the past one year and was dropped for the last two matches of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
“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.
It will be interesting to see if Rahul manages to keep his spot in the squad or not. Abhimanyu Easwaran scored a century in the Irani Cup and could replace him for the fixture. As far as wicketkeeping goes, KS Bharat is ahead of Ishan Kishan in the pecking order and might keep the wickets.
Both Bharat and Kishan were uncapped going into BGT 2023. Bharat was backed for all four matches and he lived up to the expectations. Rahul has kept wickets in Test cricket but only on a stand-in basis. He is a regular wicketkeeper in white-ball cricket only.
