India captain Rohit Sharma shared his thoughts on KL Rahul as wicketkeeper for the upcoming Test series in South Africa. The two-Test series begins with the first Test on December 26 in Centurion and the second match will be played in Cape Town from January 3 onwards.
India has a few selection issues ahead of the first Test match of the series against South Africa, but one thing is certain. The wicketkeeper for the series has been decided, and it is not KS Bharat. KL Rahul, who maintained wickets in the ODI World Cup, will now also keep wickets in Test cricket.
This is despite the fact that KL Rahul has never kept wickets in an entire Test and the last time he donned the keeping gloves in a Test was back in 2015 in Sri Lanka.
However, India captain Rohit Sharma said that the way Rahul kept wickets in the ODI World Cup recently and his batting in the middle order makes him the perfect candidate for donning the gloves in Tests as well.
Speaking to the press on the eve of the first Test, Rohit said: "Every cricketer has to go through a transformation role. Very few cricketers have played in just one position all their career. KL Rahul is the former. I was quite impressed with the role KL Rahul played in ODI World Cup. The position that he's batting in limited overs, he does most of the things right plus he's an experienced player, providing us the right balance."
With Rahul keeping wickets, he will bat in the middle-order in Test cricket as well. He had made his debut as a middle-order batter but soon started to open the innings. He is already a middle-order battter in ODIs now.
(NDTV inputs)
