KL Rahul, not a long-term keeping option, feel experts

Rahul was just filling in for the injured Rishabh Pant in Rajkot but comparisons have already been drawn with the great Rahul Dravid, who batted in the middle-order and kept wickets in more than 70 ODIs for the team’s sake.

Eventually Rahul’s 80 off 52 balls made the difference as India won the high-scoring second ODI by 36 runs. The Karnataka batsman also effected Aaron Finch’s stumping besides taking two catches off pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Navdeep Saini respectively.

Though former India opener Aakash Chopra feels that Rahul is a better wicket-keeper than what Dravid was in his playing days, he feels the right-hander should not be given the dual responsibility.

“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 said.

“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,” added Chopra.

Former India wicket-keeper Nayan Mongia is also of the view that Rahul can’t be the number one choice behind the stumps, at least in ODIs.

“He can be a good second wicket-keeper. He cannot be a permanent wicket-keeper in ODIs. T20s it is still okay, but not in ODIs. There should be a regular keeper but he can be a second option,” Mongia said.

However, Rahul is relishing the challenge of wicket-keeping in the last two ODIs. Rahul has kept for India U-19s at the World Cup and also kept wickets for Karnataka and Indian Premier League.

“It is (a challenge). Even for me sometimes I couldn’t pick Kuldeep (Yadav) and (Ravindra) Jadeja at the pace he bowls is just pretty difficult, it’s not what I get in my first-class team. I’m just enjoying what’s thrown at me and trying to do the best I can.”

He admitted that it was hard to keep wickets for pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah. “Jasprit, I have always felt when I used to bat against him (Jasprit) in the IPL, I have always felt like the best place to be against Jasprit is behind the stumps, but now that I have to keep wickets, it is still hard, the way he bowls, swinging the ball both ways, it is a bit of a wobble.

“And for somebody who is not a regular keeper that can be pretty hard. We have seen for guys who are regular keepers, he is still a nightmare to keep,” he said.