Former Team India head coach Ravi Shastri made an interesting suggestion to current coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma over KL Rahul for the upcoming ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final against Australia to be played at The Oval from June 7.
Shastri, who was highly impressed with Rahul's wicketkeeping in the first ODI against Australia, and as his batting record in England is also impressive, the former cricketer wants Team India to pick the Karnataka star as the wicketkeeper-batter for the upcoming WTC 2023 final.
Notably, the right-hander was preferred over Ishan Kishan for the wicketkeeping job, and he took a stunning catch of Steve Smith and also saved few runs with his glovework off the pacers, as well as scoring a brilliant fifty to help the hosts beat Australia by 5 wickets in the first ODI on March 17.
Well, the former Indian captain believes that Dravid and Rohit should pick Rahul for the WTC final as a wicketkeeper-batter, as it will bolster India's batting line-up with him batting in the middle order.
Speaking on Star Sports, Ravi Shastri said: “He has really done well to keep the selectors interested ahead of the WTC final. Two things, one for the ODI series when Rohit Sharma returns and the other for the WTC final. India can bolster their batting if Rahul can keep wickets.”
He signed off by saying, “Rahul can bat in the middle-order No. 5 or No. 6. in England, you have to generally keep wickets from far behind. You don’t have to keep up to the spinners a lot. He has 3 more ODIs to go before the IPL. He can cement his place in that Indian team.”
Notably, Rahul has so far scored 614 runs at 34.11 with the help of two centuries, one at the Oval, in 9 Test matches in England.
