In the past couple of weeks, Team India has witnessed a quick turnaround during the Australia series and now they are looking forward to the first of the five-match T20I series on Friday. India ended their home season with a 2-1 series win over Australia in the ODIs and will be hoping to continue the impetus against the Blackcaps. More than the series win, KL Rahul doing well with teh wicket-keeping gloves in Rishabh Pant’s absence was the big positive for India.

And ahead of the series opener in Auckland, the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli has hinted of continuing with the experiment in the T20I series. With Pant suffering from concussion, Rahul stood behind the stumps in the first ODI and then played as a wicketkeeper in the rest of the series as well. Rather he did well in the dual role scoring 80 off 52 balls batting at no. 5 in Rajkot and then affected an impressive stumping to send back Aaron Finch as well.

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Moreover, Rahul again got to open the innings in the third and final ODI after keeping the wickets for 50 overs. Rahul doing well behind the stumps has provided a huge opportunity to the men in blue to play an extra batsman in the playing XI and Virat seems to be happy with it.

During a media interaction on Thursday in Auckland, the Indian skipper said, “KL Rahul doing really well with the gloves has opened up another kind of scenario where it gives us a lot more balance in playing an extra batter. This is something that we are looking to continue for a while.”

However, Rahul is the wicket-keeper batsman then it will be risking Pant with no clarity over his role and future. Not long ago, he was termed as India’s number 1 wicketkeeper in all the formats. Since then, Pant has lost his place to Wriddhiman Saha in Tests and now to Rahul in the ODIs and T20Is. The move has also been questioned by a few former cricketers. But Kohli has cleared that they will take the decision in the best interest of the team.

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Virat further explained, “I know there will be talks around what happens to other players and whatnot. For us, the most important thing is what the team requires and the best balance we can create as a side.”