Mumbai: KL Rahul used to be a specialist batsman who could keep wickets.
In less than 48 hours, the classy Karnataka cricketer is set to don the big gloves for Team India in a major assignment in a second format.
Coach Rahul Dravid virtually confirmed that the 31-year-old Rahul will keep wickets in the two-Test series against South Africa, starting at Centurion on December 26.
He performed the wicketkeeping task in the recent ODI World Cup with great aplomb, and also in the recent 2-1 ODI series win against the Proteas, but the opening Test match will only be Rahul’s second first-class game as gloveman.
Rishabh Pant’s deadly car accident a year ago has kept him out of the game for months, and opened up a vacuum which Rahul is ready to fill.
“It’s (wicketkeeping) an exciting challenge. It’s an opportunity for him to do something different. With Ishan (Kishan) unavailable, we had a couple of ’keepers to choose from. Rahul is very confident about giving it a go. We understand that he hasn’t done that quite often (in longest format), but he has done it in 50 overs, and even that is tough,” Dravid said on Sunday.
Kishan had to return home due to an injury, forcing the selectors to fly in KS Bharat.
But the team management decided to ignore the specialist wicketkeeper and go with Rahul which will lend better balance to the playing XI.
“He (Rahul) has done a lot of keeping in the past five-six months. One of the things here is that there is more pace bowling than spin, which will ease him into the role. We will see how it goes. It is nice to have someone like him, someone who has the ability with the bat and keep,” Dravid added.
The selectors and team management will still have to figure out a few more slots, like the No. 3 batter.
It all depends on who skipper Rohit Sharma opens with — promising young left-hander Yashasvi Jaiswal or Shubman Gill?
Jaiswal made a thrilling start to his Test career with scores of 171, 57 and 38 against the West Indies five months ago. In those two Tests, Gill made 6, 10 and 29*.
Though Gill prefers opening, he may have to give up that slot to Jaiswal.
Virat Kohli, Rahul and Shreyas Iyer will be the other specialist batters. Ravindra Jadeja will walk in to the XI, while the second allrounder’s slot will go to Ravichandran Ashwin or Shardul Thakur, depending on conditions at Centurion’s SuperSport Park.
Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj will be the leading pacers, with either Mukesh Kumar or uncapped Prasidh Krishna being the third pacer.
