Parthiv Patel calls KL Rahul his first choice white-ball keeper; gives advice to Rishabh Pant

Patel also mentioned that his choice was based on current form and situation.

Parthiv Patel was just 17 years and some days old when he made his India Test debut against England in 2002, the youngest keeper from the country. He was a staple in the Indian team until the arrival of MS Dhoni and despite some more chances, couldn’t cement his place.

During a session of the ‘Lockdown But Not Out’ series, Parthiv Patel was asked to pick his first-choice wicketkeeper in white-ball cricket and he picked KL Rahul based on current form and situation.

"Don’t find myself unlucky to be playing in the Dhoni era" - Parthiv Patel

“At this point of time, KL Rahul. I feel Rahul is your short-term thing in a way if you’re thinking of the World Cup. I think he’ll do the job for you during the World Cup, there’s no doubt about it,” Patel said.

However, he batted for Rishabh Pant to come good if he spends some time in domestic cricket and gets his form back. “Rishabh Pant definitely has it in him, there’s no doubt about that. If I put myself into his shoes when I was 17-18, I didn’t have a good series, and going back to domestic cricket for a couple of years helped me a lot,” Parthiv mentioned.

“Every time I’ve met Rishabh, I’ve always told him that people are talking about you because you’ve talent in you. If you had no talent and if you weren’t talented, people wouldn’t have been talking about you, so keep that in mind. Sometimes, you have to go back to domestic cricket and just get that form back,” he explained.

Rishabh Pant has faced quite a scrutiny for his irresponsible batting style and shoddy wicketkeeping in his young career so far. His Test results have been better than his limited-overs returns, with him being the only Indian wicketkeeper to score two Test centuries outside Asia.

(IANS inputs)