Taking a sly dig on former players, who want KL Rahul as a wicketkeeper-batter for the World Test Championship (WTC) final at The Oval in June, Gautam Gambhir said the team must play the “specialist wicketkeeper” KS Bharat instead of a “part timekeeper.”
“You should always go with a special wicketkeeper. England is a tough place to keep, where you can’t go with a part-time wicketkeeper,” Gambhir told Sports Tak.
Gambhir also said KL Rahul, who had a decent record in England, should purely play as a batsman but not as a “wicketkeeper-batsman.”
“If you want to pick KL Rahul for the WTC final, then play him purely as a batsman,” he said.
Gambhir also defended KS Bharat, who has been under heavy criticism by the former players for his keeping and batting in the recently-concluded Border-Gavaskar Test series.
“In four matches, we came to the conclusion that KS Bharat’s batting and keeping is not up to the mark. In those four matches, our top-order batsmen also failed to score, we must keep that in mind,” said Gambhir.
“Those former players who are questioning Bharat must check their own records. The longer runs they have got despite not being able to perform. In Test cricket, you should always play a proper keeper. A wicketkeeper can drop catches but he can also take some stunning catches as well.
