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‘KL Rahul better keeper than Dravid, but...’: Former Indian cricketer has a message for Team India management
IND vs AUS: After the series, Team India captain Virat Kohli was chuffed with the performance of Rahul as a wicket-keeper in the side and tipped him to continue with the job in the near future.
With the injury to Rishabh Pant, the Indian management gave the gloves to KL Rahul for the second and third ODI and the young Karnataka player did a decent job behind the stumps. Not only this, he was also very impressive at number 5 in Rajkot and played a superb innings which was the difference between the two sides. There have been comparisons made with former Indian captain Rahul Dravid, who too was used in a similar capacity by Sourav Ganguly, but former India opener Aakash Chopra believes, Rahul should not be viewed as a long term option.
“He is a better keeper than what Dravid was but I would not want him to keep on a regular basis. Keeping takes a toll. He can’t be keeping for 50 overs and then batting higher up the order,” Chopra told PTI ahead of the series decider on Sunday.
“If somebody who is that good (with the bat) and if he can do another job, it doesn’t mean that he should keep as well. Rahul is too precious a talent for me to slot in as a keeper batsman. That way, instead of managing his workload, you are increasing his workload.
“Once in a while if he has to keep for the team balance it is okay but in the longer run you have to allow him to score 10000 runs and that won’t happen if he is being asked to keep,” Chopra further added.
After the series, Team India captain Virat Kohli was chuffed with the performance of Rahul as a wicket-keeper in the side and tipped him to continue with the job in the near future.
“It definitely allows us to play an extra batsmen which strengthens our batting massively,” Kohli told reporters after India beat Australia by 7 wickets in the third ODI at Bengaluru to take the three-match series 2-1.
“We have to persist with it as he has done well. We have to see whether it works, you cannot chop and change. I do not see why we should change this playing XI,” the skipper added.
