Former India all-rounder and a member of the 1983 World Cup-winning Indian team, Roger Binny believes that KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant can provide healthy competition to each other in the team and India can utilise them both in the same playing XI as pure batsmen. While he rated Rahul as a brilliant opening batsman, Binny feels Pant has all the qualities in him to be a good middle-order batsman.
“I think it’s a healthy competition because KL Rahul actually picks himself as a batsman. He is a brilliant opening batsman, who can keep, who can double up as a keeper also for the team, whereas Pant is a middle-order batsman. He is a brilliant talent. He’s got the shots; he is ideally suited for the shorter version of the game. If somebody has a rough season, you can always call back the other. Both can even fit into the team as batsmen,” Roger Binny told Sportskeeda in a live interaction.
Rahul was the top-scorer in the T20I series between India and New Zealand in February this year where he notched up 224 runs in five games. He continued his impressive run in the ODI series and scored 204 runs in three games to keep Pant on the bench. Pant did not get to play a single white-ball game on the tour.
However, the left-hander will be keen to stage a comeback and regain his spot in the team and establish his credentials once again as India’s first-choice wicket-keeper in ODIs and T20Is. Binny feels having both Rahul and Pant in the squad will be a good headache for Kohli, who will not have to look too far if one of the two players are going through a rough patch.
