Addressing a press conference ahead of the 3rd ODI against New Zealand, Indian head coach Rahul Dravid gave legendary cricketer MS Dhoni a special mention while discussing India’s wicketkeeper conundrum in the ODI World Cup year.
With India missing the services of injured glovesman Rishabh Pant in the World Cup year, the Rahul Dravid-coached side has roped in Ishan Kishan after a tried and tested KL Rahul was unavailable for the New Zealand series due to personal reasons. Former Indian vice-captain Rahul was the first-choice keeper in the Sri Lanka series while in-form Kishan returned to the playing eleven for the three One Day Internationals (ODIs) against New Zealand. Overlooked by selectors for the Sri Lanka ODIs, Kishan was branded as an automatic starter by skipper Rohit after Rahul and Shreyas Iyer were ruled out of the New Zealand series.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference on Monday ahead of the 3rd ODI against the Black Caps, the head coach was asked whether Team India is looking for a Dravid-like wicketkeeper-batter in the lead-up to the 2023 World Cup. Specialist batsmen like Dravid became India’s full-time wicketkeeper in the early 2000s to accommodate talented youngsters such as Mohammad Kaif, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag.
A batting icon, Dravid famously wore his gloves during the 2003 World Cup against Surab his Ganguly-managed team his India wicket keeper. The Indian head coach took note of the reporter’s question and made specific mention of legendary wicketkeeper batsman MS Dhoni before praising the younger generation of wicketkeepers. A batting legend during his playing days, Dravid was relieved of his wicketkeeper duties after the arrival of Partif Patel, Dinesh Karthik and Dhoni.
“We are always looking for a wicketkeeper hitter, no doubt about it. With the arrival of MS Dhoni in white ball cricket, I think the days of specialist wicketkeepers are sadly over. We are lucky that even in this team everyone out there is a good hitter whether it is Ishan Kishan or he is KS Bharat and they did well in the Vijay Hazare Trophy is lucky Bharat didn’t play, but Ishan obviously did well as a batsman,” Dravid told reporters ahead of the third ODI against New Zealand.
Kishan, who holds the Indian wicket in Rahul’s absence, was also included in the Test squad for the first two Tests of the top-flight Border Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. Kishan got his call in his first Test after an amazing run in his format in Limited. The explosive Indian opener stunned the cricketing fraternity with a sensational double century against Bangladesh at the 3rd ODI last December.
Kishan will face Slicker his Barratt, who has also been named in his squad for the Australian Series Test. The same duo are also part of his ODI squad for the ongoing series against New Zealand. Next, Jitesh Sharma is mixed. Vidarba’s wicketkeeper batsman got the first call-up for Sri Lanka T20Is. The Punjab Kings star has replaced wicketkeeper batsman Sanju Samson, who was ruled out of the T20I series with a knee injury. Jitesh retains his spot on the Indian T20I team in New Zealand’s three-game series.
“Rahul and Samson are there but unfortunately Rishabh is injured. All these guys are wicketkeeper batsmen. Today I think you have to be a wicketkeeper batsman. We have also included Jitesh Sharma in the T20 mix, which, as shown in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy he played and IPL, hits very fast. because it can run.