Discussed about retaining with KL Rahul, he was assured: Dravid

KL Rahul has all the time been assured about retaining wickets in Tests and the upcoming sequence towards South Africa will permit India’s new gloveman to do one thing completely different, head coach Rahul Dravid stated on Sunday.

With KS Bharat having been discovered technically inept by way of batting talents within the conventional format, Indian workforce administration’s different choice was Ishan Kishan, who determined to take a ‘mental health’ break.

In that sense, Rahul wasn’t simply your best option amongst the troika, however he was additionally the one viable choice in a strain state of affairs and on the pacer-friendly tracks right here.

“I see it as an exciting challenge, an opportunity for him to certainly do something different. Obviously, with Ishan not being available, this opportunity came up. We had a couple of keepers to choose from and Rahul is one of them.

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We had discussed it with him, and he was very confident and was keen on giving it a go,” Dravid stated throughout a media interplay.

While Dravid understood that the challenges of retaining in Tests have been fully completely different, he trusted the guy Bengaluru man to do a great job, having proven respectable talents within the 50-over model.

“We do understand it is not something he has done as often (keeping in Tests). But he has been doing it regularly in 50 overs cricket, and that takes a lot out of your body. He has prepared well over the last five to six months, he has done a lot of keeping,” Dravid stated.

Rahul gained’t must hold a lot towards spin 

While Dravid defined the rationale behind choosing Rahul as a wicketkeeper, he additionally dropped a touch that there gained’t be a lot spin bowling on this monitor successfully ruling out Ravichandran Ashwin because the second spinner.

“This will be a new and exciting challenge for him. I guess one of the things is there’s not going to be that much spin bowling, so that will ease him into the role a little bit, something how it goes and pans out,” the coach stated.

Having Rahul as keeper additionally offers the workforce the cushion of an additional batter, which on this case is Shreyas Iyer. Had Kishan performed, one specialist batter amongst Rahul and Iyer would have needed to make manner for him.

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“It’s really nice to have him for the option he provides us. His ability with the bat will be useful, and he has kept in white ball cricket, and the question is of transforming that into red-ball cricket,” the coach added.

There is a forecast for heavy rains throughout the first two days and probabilities of moisture beneath the floor however Dravid was assured that his workforce has bowling depth to counter adversarial situations.

“Look, you need to check out what happens on the match day. We still have another day left before the match starts. We need to see what’s in front of us. What’s up there (sky) and what’s down there (pitch), you will only know on the match day,” the coach stated.

“We will take a decision, but we have balance, if we want, we can play two spinners and three seamers and maybe four-seamers. We have that depth and balance (in the team) but you can’t control the weather,” he sounded a tad bullish.