WTC 2023 Final: Ravi Shastri and Dinesh Karthik offer suggestions on India’s wicketkeeper dilemma ahead of the big clash

The fans will witness two heavyweights of the cricketing world battle it out at London’s Kennington Oval for the biggest crown in Test cricket. The Indian cricket team directed by Rohit Sharma And Pat Cummins‘ Australia compete against each other in the finals of the World Test Championship (WTC) from June 7, 2023 to June 11, 2023. However, Team India has a major problem with the wicketkeeper slot ahead of the WTC final.

Injuries to key players including first choice wicket-keeper Rishabh pants and backup KL Rahul, have placed the Indian line-up in quite a quandary. In the absence of Pant and Rahul, both of them K. S. Bharat And Ishan Kishan have been included in India’s Test squad for the ultimate championship battle next month.

Bharat represented the country in its longest form as he got to do the glove work for the team in the recently concluded 2023 Border-Gavaskar Trophy held in February-March. The 29-year-old gave a very good impression of himself as a wicket-keeper, but failed to show his full prowess with the bat as he managed just 101 runs from six innings in the spin-friendly conditions.

On the other hand, Kishan warmed the benches during the four-match test series against Australia and was only called up to the WTC team after Rahul was injured during the IPL and ruled out of the one-off affair.

Former Indian coach Ravi Shastri was asked about the wicketkeeper India should go for in the latest installment of the ICC review and said the choice would depend on conditions at the South London venue.

“Look, that’s another tough (decision). Now if two spinners are playing, then you would want Bharat to play. You have to see who is a better keeper. Is it Bharat or Ishan Kishan? Now, the fact that Bharat got a point against Australia, where he played all the test matches, I think he would be the obvious choice to come along. Shastri said on the ICC Review.

‘There’s not much there. It’s not that one man is much better than the other. Batting will also come into play whether you want Ishan Kishan’s batting to support the middle order. That’s another thing you’ll see in perspective.” Shastri added.

“Are you going with four fast bowlers? Then there isn’t much spider and you just need someone decent behind the stumps to do the job. So that you would leave to team management. Just before the game, they would just take into account these little things that I just said, and of course look at the current form. Shastri said in the video posted by ICC.

Former Indian wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik, however, feels the selection is easy as the veteran batsman – who played in the IPL for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) – chose Bharath’s experience for the big occasion.

“I think Bharat will be a pretty easy choice as playing Ishan Kishan in his debut and a Test match straight into the World Test Championship final is a bit too much to ask.” Karthik said.

And the fact that KS Bharat probably tips the scale a little bit in his favor with this lead he has. So I do think they will go in with KS Bharat for the final.” Karthik added.

Although Visakhapatnam native Bharat has only played four test matches so far, he has experience of 90 first-class matches in the longest format. Kishan has yet to make his test debut and has played just 48 first-class games.

While Bharat may be a better option behind the stumps, Kishan is a skilled batsman and already has a double ODI century to his credit after a brilliant 210 against Bangladesh at Chattogram last December.