India beat Australia 2-1 in the 2023 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which concluded last week in Ahmedabad. Apart from beating the world’s No. 1 Test team at home and retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, India also confirmed its place in the final of the ICC World Test Championship. The final summit clash of the 2021–23 WTC cycle will be played from June 7–11 at the Oval in London, where once again India will be up against the Australian team.
While there are still more than two months before the big match takes place, the discussion about Team India’s likely playing XI for the final has been up for discussion among former greats and experts of the game. And one of the most discussed positions is that of the wicketkeeper-batter. In the absence of an injured Rishabh Pant during the 2023 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, KS Bharat played in all four matches as a wicketkeeper-batter but failed to impress much with the bat. He did a decent job behind the stumps but was only able to score 101 runs in six innings over four Tests.
Due to his batting show, many former greats batted for the inclusion of KL Rahul in the side as a wicketkeeper-batter for the final. However, that idea wasn’t well received by former opener Gautam Gambhir, who slammed Bharat’s critics for forming an opinion about him after just four games. He backed the Andhra cricketer’s candidacy and said that the team should go on with a specialist wicketkeeper and not a part-time keeper.
But if one goes by former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri’s opinion, then according to him, Rahul should play in the WTC Final. He feels that the 30-year-old has been keeping well in ODIs, will provide solidity with the bat, and won’t find keeping to pacers tough.
“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 wicket 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 told reporters during Legends League Cricket in Doha.
Bharat’s position came under scrutiny after he missed a couple of stumping opportunities and dropped quite a few sitters as well during the course of the series.
