Regardless of Rishabh Pant’s fitness, India may hand over the gloves to KL Rahul in the shorter format. Rahul came up with a match-winning fifty two-ball eighty in the second ODI in Rajkot against Australia where he also showed his prowess as a wicketkeeper in Pant’s absence. His versatility in the batting order has earned excessive praise from Kohli who is now keen on continuing with this team in New Zealand later this week.
Kohli on IND vs AUS third ODI:
Kohli said after India’s series win in Bangalore on Sunday (January 19), “KL Rahul virtually brings in a great balance to keep that well and bat that well in that position. It’s just that he’s come into that slot and has performed well. We’re going to ought to stick to that a little bit and see where that takes us and now not always be confused approximately the opposite options that we have. I suppose a loss of clarity in terms of positions within the beyond has hurt us.”
“Now that we take into account that this crew is right, we are going to cross ahead with that for a while and figure out whether this is the proper group or no longer. We can not chop and change without delay and create confusion within the group. We’re playing well, unchanged team, and we did the activity again.” added Kohli.
Kohli additionally drew parallels with India’s squad in the 2003 World Cup where the team management at that time convinced the former captain Rahul Dravid to don the gloves to accommodate an extra batsman.
Kohli feels India can undertake a similar approach if Rahul can be asked to deliver in the middle order while being the primary-choice keeper at the same time. “It simply allows us to play an extra batsman which supports our batting weightily,” he said. “If you examine the 2003 World Cup wherein Rahul Bhai began keeping, the balance has become one-of-a-kind because you could play an additional batter and guys on the pinnacle may want to play superb cricket.”
India’s come-from-at the back of a win in the series towards Australia turned into important in terms of self-belief ahead of a long hard tour of New Zealand, according to Kohli.
Kohli believes India can also take a cue from its recent performances:
With India’s tour set to kick off with a T20I in just four days, Kohli feels that it’s crucial to set the tone early. Kohli believes India can also take a concept from India’s performance in New Zealand last year where they dictated the ODI series to win 4-1 before dropping a closely fought T20I series 2-1. This time, India will play five T20Is, 3 ODIs, and checks.
