India’s legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar feels that it will be a battle between KL Rahul and KS Bharat for the slot of wicketkeeper in the team for the World Test Championship final against Australia. It is worth noting that India’s regular wicketkeeper in Test cricket, Rishabh Pant, is out of action since a horrific car crash he met with in December last year. In the southpaw’s absence during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in February-March, it was Bharat who kept wickets for India while Rahul was dropped following his poor returns in the first two Tests of the four-match series.
“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 while speaking on Star Sports’ Cricket Live.
On of the highlights of the India squad announced for the WTC final was the inclusion of Ajinkya Rahane.
“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.
While picking his Playing 11 for the WTC Final, Sunil Gavaskar said, “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.”
India squad for WTC final against Australia: 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.
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