Team India head coach Rahul Dravid feels it will be an exciting challenge for KL Rahul as he will don the wicket-keeping gloves in the Test series against South Africa. He expressed that the veteran batter is confident of doing well as a wicket-keeper in the two-match Test series, that kicks off on December 26 in Centurion.
KL Rahul hasn’t kept wickets for Team India in Test matches yet. The South Africa series will be his maiden opportunity in the format, as Ishan Kishan has opted out of the series due to personal reasons. In the pre-match press conference, Rahul Dravid spoke about KL Rahul donning the wicket-keeping gloves. He said,
“It’s an exciting challenge. It’s an opportunity for him to do something different. With Ishan unavailable, we had a couple of keepers to choose from. Rahul is very confident about giving it a go. We understand that he hasn’t done that quite often (in longest format). But he has done it in fifty overs, and even that is tough.”
“He has done a lot of keeping in the past five months. One of the things here is that there is more pace bowling than spin, which will ease him into the role. We will see how it goes. It is nice to have someone like him, someone who has the ability with the bat and keep,” he added.
India’s squad for the Test series
The two-match Test series between India and South Africa starts on Tuesday, December 26 at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. Rohit Sharma will return to the team as the captain for the series. Meanwhile, KS Bharat has replaced Ishan Kishan in the Indian squad. Mohammed Shami has also been ruled out of the tournament after not being cleared by the BCCI medical team.
India’s squad for Tests: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Prasidh Krishna, KS Bharat (wk)
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