The World Test Championship 2023 final is set to begin on June 7 at The Oval in London, with India taking on Australia. India, led by Rohit Sharma, will be looking for their first WTC title after losing in the final in the inaugural event. India won the 2019-21 World T20 final by an eight-wicket margin, captained by Virat Kohli.
Rahul Dravid and his teammates face a selection dilemma for the wicketkeeper position ahead of the final. Rishabh Pant, the team’s first-choice wicketkeeper, has been ruled out due to injuries sustained in a car accident. Meanwhile, backup wicketkeeper KL Rahul is injured and will miss the WTC final.
Speaking ahead of the WTC final, former India head coach Ravi Shastri shared his perspective on the wicketkeeper conundrum. Speaking to The ICC Review, Shastri said, “See, that’s another tight one (decision). Now, if two spinners are playing, then you would want Bharat to play.”
“You have to see who’s a better keeper. Is it Bharat or Ishan Kishan? Now, the fact that Bharat was given a run against Australia, where he played all the Test matches, I think he would be the obvious choice to go with.”
After choosing KS Bharat, Shastri also explained that it didn’t mean Ishan Kishan wasn’t a better player. “There’s not much there. It’s not that one guy is far better than the other. Batting will also come into play, whether you want Ishan Kishan’s batting to shore up the middle order. That’s another thing you’ll take into perspective. Are you going to go with four fast bowlers? Then there’s not much spin 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 weigh in just these little things that I’ve just said, and obviously look at current form”, he stated.