The absence of Shreyas Iyer (for this collection) and Rishabh Pant (for the following six months) and a deficient begin to the Test profession of KS India are all elements which appear to have conspired at hand Rahul a golden likelihood to redeem himself and seal his spot as a wicket-keeper batsman in Team India for the World Test Championship Final in Oval in June and the ODI WC in India later this yr.
A excellent collection towards Australia after which a good IPL-2023 will immensely spice up Rahul’s case as a unswerving No 5 batsman who can stay wickets in each Test & ODI codecs. The want to exchange Rahul with KS Bharat, who had an odd time within the Border Gavaskar Trophy-the Andhra guy made simply 101 runs in 4 Tests @20.2 and dropped a couple of probabilities too-was wired currently via India’s batting legend Sunil Gavaskar,
“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 well in England last year. He scored a century at Lord’s. Keep KL Rahul in mind when you pick your XI for the WTC final,” Gavaskar advised Sports Tak.
Gavaskar had wired that Rahul’s presence as a ‘keeper will upload muscle to India’s batting within the WTC ultimate. “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 India’s,” he mentioned.
While he has scored seven Test centuries, the off-colour Rahul’s perfect rating in his closing 10 Test innings has been 23—he became out for 20, 17 & 1 within the recently-held BGT—and became stripped of his vice-captaincy and Dropped from the XI via India after failing within the first two Tests within the collection. However, it will have to be remembered that once India toured England in 2021, Rahul, opening the innings, scored 84 within the first Test at Nottingham after which 129 at Lord’s within the subsequent Test. In 2018, he had scored 100 at The Oval within the 5th Test.
In the 47 Tests that he has performed in (reasonable 33.44), Rahul has slammed masses in Australia, South Africa, and West Indies too. Rahul has performed 15 of his 51 ODIs as a keeper-batsman and he averages 55.25 in them with a strike price of 102.79. His perfect rating of 112 is as a keeper-bat vs New Zealand at Mount Maunganui in January 2020.
On Wednesday, two days forward of the primary ODI towards the Aussies on the Wankhede Stadium, India’s fielding trainer T Dilip gave complete marks to Rahul’s ‘retaining skills.
“We all know that KL Rahul is a wonderful player. He has a proven record. Even in ODIs, in the middle-order, he has proved himself as a batsman. As a wicketkeeper, he lends a lot of balance to the team. He is not someone who has picked up the gloves now. He has been doing that since his younger days,” Dilip mentioned.