Keeping the faith, Rahul style
Keeping in IPL, domestic cricket pays off for player; noses ahead of Pant, Samson, Dhoni in World T20 race
BENGALURU: How quickly can equations change in the world of sport! The latest example came in India’s one-day series win over Australia, where KL Rahul emerged a serious contender to the batsman-‘keeper slot in white-ball teams.
After displaying fine form with bat and keeping gloves, he is now frontrunner for that role in the October World Twenty20 in Australia. It though puts a question mark over the future of Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
After the final ODI here on Sunday, Virat Kohli declared Rahul as first-choice in limitedovers formats because the team is happy with the balance he lends to the team.
“Look, we have what we have in the team. Rahul really brings in a good balance, to keep that well and bat that well in that position. It’s just that he’s come into that slot and has done well. We’ll have to persist with that a little bit and see where that takes us, and not necessarily be confused about the other options (Pant, Dhoni and Samson) that we have,” the India skipper said.
CLARITY ON SPOTS
One reason for India’s semi-final exit at last year’s World Cup was a lack of solidity in the middleorder. They over-experimented and finally went to the World Cup without an established No. 4. Lessons learnt, the team management is eager to have clarity over spots early in their preparation for the next World Cup.
“Lack of clarity in terms of positions in the past has really hurt us. Now that we understand that this team is right, we’re going to go ahead with that for a while and figure out whether this is the right team or not. We can’t chop and change immediately and create confusion within the group.
“We’re playing well, an unchanged team, and we did the job again. Two wins back to back... I don’t see any reason why we should change this balance as it has done well; we’re going to continue with this for a while,” said Kohli.
DRAVID EXAMPLE
It is a formula Sourav Ganguly as skipper used successfully at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, when he got Rahul Dravid to double up as keeper in the run to the final. Dravid had kept in a few ODIS starting with a game in the 1999 World Cup, but did the job regularly under Ganguly—most of his 73 games as ‘keeper coming between 2001 and 2004.
Kohli feels India can revisit that plan if Rahul continues to deliver as batsman and keeper. “It definitely allows us to play an