Famous Indian commentator Aakash Chopra is not entirely convinced by Team India’s decision of going with KL Rahul as the wicketkeeper-batsman for New Zealand ODIs. Speaking to the media on the eve of the first ODI, Indian skipper Virat Kohli made it clear that Rahul will play in the game and will bat lower down the order.
I’m not suggesting that making Rahul keep will injure him, but it would increase the chances of that happening. His body might not be used to keeping wicket for three and a half hours and then opening the innings half an hour later,” he wrote in his column for ESPNCricinfo.
Yes, I hear you, Adam Gilchrist could do it, but then, he also trained his wicket-keeping muscles all his cricket-playing life. Thousands of hours of keeping develop and strengthen the muscles required to perform that role. And keeping in a 50-over game is very different from keeping in a T20I,” Chopra added.
“When and how are we going to know whether Pant or Sanju Samson or Ishan Kishen or someone else is to be the second wicketkeeper in the side,” he goes on to write.
