With MS Dhoni’s international career in its descendency, India has a herculean task of finding the right replacement for the legendary wicketkeeper-batsman, especially in the limited-overs cricket.
Dhoni has been out of cricketing actions since the 2019 World Cup semi-final in July last year, though, the former captain was to make his much-awaited return with the IPL 2020 but the tournament has been suspended indefinitely due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
On the other hand, the India team-management has been trying out different wicketkeepers like Wriddhiman Saha, Rishabh Pant, and KL Rahul to find the right replacement, but none of them have been able to secure a permanent berth as wicketkeeper-batsman for Team India so far.
Recently, former Australia chinaman bowler Brad Hogg has come out with a suggestion over the wicket-keeper conundrum in Team India. He believes that Pant should be picked over experienced Saha in the Test cricket despite the latter being the better wicket-keeper because of his explosive batting.
In a video uploaded on his Youtube channel Hogg’s Vlog, the Aussie said: “Let’s firstly look at who is the better keeper. We have to go to Saha first because he’s the best. Why? Because he stays low. When the ball comes, he doesn’t move till the last moment, he moves with soft hands, and he gives.
Also, he’s got very nimble feet, where he’s quick at down leg side and to take those stumpings. He’s got the good reach, and quick hands to come back and take the stumpings. And when he’s up to the stumps, those quick catches off the edge, he generally takes most of them.”
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He further explained, “KL Rahul has shown he can keep in the shorter formats with the opportunities he has got earlier in the year. Much like Saha, he is quick with the hands. But because of his height, he’s slightly slower down the leg side. Pant is a little more flat-footed. He’s got hard hands and he snatches more at the ball than the other two. So, who is the ideal player to keep wickets in all three formats?
In Tests, I wouldn’t have KL Rahul keeping because he doesn’t do enough of it at first-class level. It would put pressure on his batting, I’d be too afraid that his batting will fall away because of the extra workload. So, you’ve got to go with either Saha or Pant,”
Explaining why he would prefer Pant over Saha in Test cricket as wicketkeeper-batsman, the former left-arm spinner said: “Pant’s batting is more explosive than Saha. If you look at India’s top order, their top five do the bulk of the world. What you need from your no. 7 is someone to come out and take the game on, and get as many runs as quickly as possible.”
He further added, “It moves the game forward and gives the bowlers more time to take 20 wickets, which you need in a Test match. So, for me, even if Pant misses a few stumpings that Saha would get, he puts the team in a much better position than Saha to win the Test match with his bat.”
Meanwhile, Hogg picked Rahul as his wicketkeeper-batsman for India in the white-ball format. He further said, “In white-ball formats, you would think with that aggressive in Pant, I would be going for him in ODIs and T20Is. I am not. Saha is not the man either, because he doesn’t have that strike rate, and he doesn’t find the boundaries as easier as Pant or Rahul. So, I am going to go with Rahul.”
He signed off by saying, “If you compare stats of Rahul, Pant, the former is more aggressive in all three phases of ODIs. It’s the same story in all three formats of T20 cricket. Where Pant loses his way there is that he’s just over-aggressive, he gets too ahead of himself, he doesn’t get composure in those crucial situations, whereas Rahul is more mature.”
(With Hindustan Times Inputs)
