With India missing the services of injured wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant in the World Cup year, the Rahul Dravid-coached side has added Ishan Kishan after KL Rahul was unavailable for the New Zealand series due to personal reasons. However, Rahul was the first-choice keeper in the Sri Lanka series while in-form Ishan Kishan returned for the three ODIs against New Zealand.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference on Monday before the 3rd ODI, Rahul Dravid was asked whether Team India is looking for a Dravid-like wicketkeeper-batter ahead of the 2023 World Cup. In order to add talented youngsters like Mohammad Kaif, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag, a specialist batter like Dravid became India’s full-time wicketkeeper in the early 2000s as well.
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“We always looking for a wicketkeeper-batsman, there is no question about it. I think since there has been MS Dhoni, in white-ball cricket, the days of specialist wicketkeepers are gone unfortunately. We are lucky and we are fortunate that all of the guys who are in contention, even in this team you know whether it’s Ishan Kishan or KS Bharat are both good batsmen and have done well in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Bharat hasn’t played but Ishan has obviously done well as a batsman,” Rahul Dravid told reporters.
However, Ishan Kishan, who is keeping wickets for India in the absence of KL Rahul, earned his maiden call-up in the Test squad for the first two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. Kishan received his maiden Test call-up following his stunning run in the limited-overs formats as well.
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“There is Rahul there, Samson is there, but unfortunately, Rishabh is injured. All of these guys are wicketkeeper-batsmen. I think today, you have to be a wicketkeeper-batsman. You should be able to bat and contribute significantly. We have also picked up Jitesh Sharma in the T20 mix because of his ability to bat and score runs at a very quick pace as he has shown in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy and in the IPL that he has played. So yeah it’s given now that all teams need a wicketkeeper-batsman,” Rahul Dravid concluded.
