KS Bharat or KL Rahul- Indian coach Rahul Dravid wicket-keeping choice for 1st Test Match vs South Africa

In just under 48 hours Team India is set to take on South Africa in the first test in Centurion. A massive crowd is expected to be part of the huge game during the Boxing Day Test Match.

Ishan Kishan is back in India citing mental fatigue and this has opened a new issue for Team India. There are questions over who will be the wicket-keeper for the game starting on Tuesday.

KL Rahul and KS Bharat are the two options in front of Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid. On Sunday, the Indian coach finally revealed who will don the gloves during the first Test Match in Centurion.

Rahul Dravid sheds light on the wicket-keeping situation

Team India coach Rahul Dravid has named KL Rahul as the wicketkeeper for the first Test in Centurion on Tuesday. The 31-year-old kept wickets during the recent ODI series against South Africa. Apart from taking up the keeper duties, KL Rahul was also the Indian skipper and led the team to a 2-1 series win.

Speaking to the media before the 1^st Test, Rahul Dravid said “It’s an exciting challenge. It’s an opportunity for him to do something different. With Ishan unavailable, we had a couple of keepers to choose from. Rahul is very confident about giving it a go. We understand that he hasn’t done that quite often. But he has done it in the fifty-overs format and it is tough”

Rahul Dravid himself has kept wicket wickets for India during his playing days. The former Indian skipper has also kept wickets in the Test format on a few occasions. KL Rahul has kept wickets just once for India in the test format and that was in 2015 during the 2^nd Test in Sri Lanka. Then aged 23, Rahul took an amazing catch to dismiss Angelo Mathews off the first ball during the final day of the 2^nd Match.  

The 50-year-old also added “He has done a lot of keeping in the past 5-6 months. One of the things here is that there is more pace bowling than spin, which will ease him into the role. We will see how it goes, it is nice to have someone who has the ability to bat and keep”