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Sunil Gavaskar Shocks Everyone, Picks Forgotten Star as His Keeper for WTC Final

image-lf85jsepRahul was dropped after the 2nd Test [AP Photos]

Former India batter Sunil Gavaskar wants India to pick KL Rahul ahead of KS Bharat in the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC) final versus Australia.

Notably, Rahul was dropped from the third Test onwards in the recently-concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy. While playing the first two matches of the series, Rahul accumulated mere 38 runs in three innings as the team management decided to open with Shubman Gill from the Indore Test.

Remembering Rahul's last Test hundred in England at Lord's, Gavaskar noted that his inclusion in the WTC final can prove to be a boost for the Indian batting line-up in the WTC final.

"You can see KL Rahul as a wicketkeeper. If he bats at No.5 or 6 in at the Oval (in the WTC final) then our batting will be stronger. Because he batted really well in England last year. He scored a century at the Lord's. Keep KL Rahul in mind when you pick your XI for the WTC final," Gavaskar said as quoted to Sports Tak.

Reiterating Dinesh Karthik's point, the legend further added Rahul can be picked as a wicket-keeper over Bharat, looking at how the latter fared behind the stumps at Ahmedabad. Gavaskar pointed at a fault in Bharat's wicket-keeping technique.

"Dinesh Karthik summed up the problems with his wicketkeeping quite beautifully (during commentary). The real test of a wicketkeeper is on pitches like these where the ball is turning. If you look at Travis Head's dismissal, when the ball turned and hit his stumps, KS Bharat's gloves were nowhere near the ball. That means, if the ball hadn't hit the stumps, it would have resulted in 4 byes. This is definitely a cause for concern. 


Whether they will select him in the XI or not is up to the selection committee but in England, you won't get pitches where the keeper has to stand up to the stumps. In that case, you can pick KL Rahul as a wicketkeeper and even Ishan Kishan can be considered. Their batting is better than Bharat's," he stated.

India and Australia will meet at Kennington Oval, London on 7th June with the WTC trophy at stake.