Former India head coach Ravi Shastri and veteran keeper-batter Dinesh Karthik opined on who should keep wickets for India in their upcoming ICC World Test Championship (WTC 2023) final at the Oval against Australia starting June 7.
Led by Rohit Sharma, India will be looking to win their first WTC title, after losing in the final in the inaugural edition. In the 2021 WTC final, India was captained by Virat Kohli and crashed to an eight-wicket defeat to New Zealand.
The first batch of players under the watchful eyes of coach Rahul Dravid arrived in London and began practice.
While most of the bases are covered, the question will remain about the wicketkeeper’s role with KS Bharat and Ishan Kishan as candidates.
Speaking ahead of the WTC final, former India head coach Ravi Shastri and Dinesh Karthik shared their perspective on the wicketkeeper conundrum.
Speaking to The ICC Review, Shastri said, "See, that's another tight one (decision). Now, if two spinners are playing, then you would want Bharat to play. You have to see who's a better keeper. Is it Bharat or Ishan Kishan? Now, the fact that Bharat was given a run against Australia, where he played all the Test matches, I think he would be the obvious choice to go with."
"There's not much there. It's not that one guy is far better than the other. Batting will also come into play, whether you want Ishan Kishan's batting to shore up the middle order. That's another thing you'll take into perspective. Are you going to go with four fast bowlers? Then there's not much spin and you just need someone decent behind the stumps to do the job. So that you would leave to team management. Just before the game, they would weigh in just these little things that I've just said, and obviously look at current form", he stated.
Dinesh Karthik also supported Shastri’s views and shared his own thoughts as well.
"I think Bharat will be a pretty straightforward choice because playing Ishan Kishan in his debut and a Test match straight in the World Test Championship Final is asking a bit too much. And the fact that KS Bharat probably tips the scale in favor of himself just a little bit with this keeping edge that he has got. So I do think they will go in with KS Bharat for the final," Karthik said.
