'Ek ball pe nipta denge isse AUS vaale'- Fans react as Ishan Kishan named as KL Rahul's replacement for World Test Championship 2023 final

Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul: (Image Source: Twitter)

India have replaced the injured KL Rahul with Ishan Kishan in their squad for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia at The Oval in England in June. Rahul, the captain of Lucknow Super Giants in the Indian Premier League, suffered a thigh injury while fielding during a match and was forced to pull out from the tournament. Further scans revealed the need for surgery, which forced the Karnataka batter to also miss the WTC final. 

Kishan, who currently opens the batting and keeps wickets for Mumbai Indians, is currently uncapped at the Test level but has played 14 ODIs and 27 T20Is for India this far. He adds youthfulness and dynamism to the Indian Test squad, in addition to providing a left-handed option at the top of the order or in the middle order as required. The Jharkhand batter joins the WTC squad as the second wicketkeeper alongside KS Bharat, who recently made his Test debut against Australia earlier in the year in the absence of Rishabh Pant.

Another member of the WTC squad whose involvement in the match is under scrutiny is Rahul’s Lucknow teammate Jaydev Unadkat, who is also out of the rest of the IPL with injury. The left-arm seamer sustained an injury to his left shoulder while training in the nets during the IPL. He travelled to Mumbai for scans on the shoulder and visited one of the specialist consultants appointed by the BCCI, following which he decided to sit out the rest of the tournament. A BCCI statement said that a decision on his availability for the WTC final will be taken later.

As a result, in addition to Kishan being added to the squad, Suryakumar Yadav, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Mukesh Kumar will travel with the Indian squad to England as standby players for the WTC final.

Squad: Rohit Sharma (capt.), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Kishan (wk)

Standby players: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Mukesh Kumar, Suryakumar Yadav

Here's a look at how fans reacted to Ishan Kishan replacing KL Rahul:

Sarfaraz 🥺

— 🇮🇳Munis Qureshi🇮🇳 (@Munisazizi) May 8, 2023

Even jagdeeshan is better than Ishan Kishan

— raz (@iamraz_) May 8, 2023

Saha >>>>>>>>>Ishan

— Tonald Drump🔱 (@Sexyano_Donaldo) May 8, 2023

Ishan seems to struggle on a seaming track , bouncy track , spin friendly track and all track apart from flat track in T20 but Indian team is taking him to WTC final in oval

— Vimlesh Maheshwari (@VimleshMaheshw3) May 8, 2023

🤣😂🤣😂Ek ball me nipta denge ise aus wale

— Vincent (@thecricket_ex) May 8, 2023

Movies have nepotism Indian teams have franchiseism… 😂. ishan who can’t play swing for his life is selected to play swing bowling in England . Slow clap ! Connection : Mumbai Indians , Captain MI & Indian team : Rohit sharma .

— HR26 (@HR26GGN) May 8, 2023

Disadvantage for India

— Captain👮‍♂ (@Ab_Nahi_) May 8, 2023

The worst you can get against seam

Hope he performs

— Manjit (@CricManjit) May 8, 2023

Rohit, Ishan? Already accepted we lost

— Suraj. (@suprsuraj) May 8, 2023