Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli has decided to play KL Rahul as his wicket-keeper batsman in the first T20 International of the ongoing five-match T20I series against New Zealand in Auckland on Friday (January 24) after his satisfactory glove work during the recent Australia series at home.
The Karnataka batsman was given the job behind the stump after regular white-ball wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant got injured in the first ODI of the three-match series against Australia.
Well, Rahul impressed one and all with his fine wicket-keeping skills in the last two ODIs at home apart from his brilliant batting display at different positions against the Australians.
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However, Pant was available for the selection for the Auckland T20I, but Kohli went for Rahul as his wicket-keeper batsman in order to play an extra batsman against the Black Caps.
It seems that Kohli’s decision was inspired by former captain and current BCCI President Sourav Ganguly when he asked Rahul Dravid to keep wickets in order for the balance the team way back in 2002-03 – which raised debate around the same after Auckland T20I.
Though, Ganguly insisted that it was Kohli and Indian cricket team management’s decision to stick with Rahul as a ‘keeper-batsman’ for the New Zealand tour when he was asked whether the decision had resemblance with his tactic of keeping with Dravid.
Ganguly told ABP News, “Virat Kohli takes that decision. The team management and captain decide the role of KL Rahul.”
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Lauding Rahul’s batting performances in the white-ball cricket, the BCCI president said: “He has played well in ODIs and T20Is. He started well in Test cricket but has gone down slightly. But in limited-overs cricket, he has played really well and hopes he continues all the good work but as I said, all these decisions are of the team management’s.”
Meanwhile, the latest development hints at the race between Rahul and Pant for the wicket-keeper’s spot for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia but he denied to make any comment regarding the same while saying Kohli, Ravi Shastri and national selectors will decide it.
Ganguly signed off by saying, “The selectors, Virat and Ravi will decide that. Whatever they think, it’ll happen that way.”
(With ABP News Inputs)
