West Indian cricket legend Brian Lara has expressed his opinion about who among Sanju Samson, KL Rahul, and Rishabh Pant should be the No.1 choice as wicketkeeper-batsman for the Indian Cricket Team.
Since MS Dhoni has retired from the international cricket this August, the Indian team will have to find a proper and regular keeper to replace the legendary cricketer, and KL Rahul, Sanju Samson, and Rishabh Pant are the top contender in the race to replace the former captain in Team India.
Well, all these three players have been doing good for their respective teams in the ongoing 13th edition of the IPL 2020 and they would certainly want to strengthen their case by putting a good show in the tournament to earn that place in the Indian cricket team.
Sharing his views on the trio, the legendary cricketer picked his favorite player to replace Dhoni in Team India and he is none other than Pant only if he continues to bat with responsibility.
On Rahul, who is in brilliant form with the bat in the ongoing IPL 2020, scoring 302 runs from 5 matches while captaining KXIP, Lara said that the 28-year-old is a “great” batsman and he should just concentrate on scoring plenty of runs instead of thinking much about his wicketkeeping for a place in the Team India.
Lara said on Star Sports' show Cricket Connected: “Well, first of all, I would like to say that KL Rahul should not be bothered with wicketkeeping when it comes to that Indian squad. He’s such a great batsman that I feel that he should concentrate on that and put in a lot of runs on the board.”
On RR’s Samson, who is also in the fine form with the bat in the IPL 13, Lara said Kerala is a “very classy player” who can also keep but said his technique was exposed against quality bowlers when Royals played matches outside Sharjah where he scores back to back half-centuries.
He added, “Samson, who is not ’keeping for Rajasthan Royals, but I do understand that he keeps, that’s one of his main jobs – very classy player, looks good so far in the tournament in Sharjah. I feel there’s a little chink in his armory in terms of his technique against very good bowling on sporty tracks.”
The former West Indies captain was also impressed with Pant’s role as a wicket-keeper batsman for DC as he picked the youngster as the No. 1 player to replace Dhoni if he continues to score runs for the team.
Lara signed off by saying, “Rishabh Pant a year ago, I would say no, but I feel that he has stepped up in terms of his responsibility as a batsman. Look at how he plays for Delhi Capitals, it looks like he wants that responsibility, he wants that onus on him to score runs, build an innings and get big scores. If he continues that way, I think that he should be the No. 1.”
(With India Today Inputs)
