KL Rahul or KS Bharat? Rahul Dravid reveals India wicket-keeper for first test vs South Africa

KS Bharat was roped in as Ishan Kishan’s replacement in the two-match test series against South Africa.

Indian cricket team will resume their ICC World Test Championship 2023-25 cycle on Tuesday against South Africa at Supersport Park in Centurion. India are yet to win a test series against South Africa in South Africa and despite coming so close they failed each time, South Africa have never conceded their territory to the Indian cricket team in tests.

India breached the Australian fortress in 2018, and now they are left with only one territory to win in their red-ball battle. Wicket-keeper KS Bharat was picked as replacement of Ishan Kishan, who left the tour midway during India’s ODI campaign. Team management is involved in a big discussion about who will be taking the gloves on for the two-match test series starting on Boxing Day.

Rahul Dravid reveals who will be keeping wickets

Indian head coach Rahul Dravid has hinted that KL Rahul might be taking the new role as Test wicket-keeper for the upcoming series. Rahul did exceptionally well in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 following his return from injury and also contributed with the bats immensely to India’s World Cup campaign. In a pre-match press conference, Rahul Dravid revealed that Rahul is confident for the new role.

Rahul Dravid said, “It’s an exciting challenge. It’s an opportunity for him to do something different. With Ishan unavailable, we had a couple of keepers to choose from. Rahul is very confident about giving it a go. We understand that he hasn’t done that quite often, but he has done it in fifty overs, and even that is tough.” KL Rahul has impressed everyone with his keeping skills in recent tournaments.

Rahul Dravid also added that the conditions will give Rahul more relief during his new as pace bowlers will be involved more than spinners in the series. Dravid added, “He has done a lot of keeping in the past five-six months. One of the things here is that there is more pace bowling than spin, which will ease him into the role. We will see how it goes. It is nice to have someone like him, someone who has the ability with the bat and keep.”

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