WTC Final 2023: KS Bharat – Despite having a mediocre Test series against Australia with bat and gloves in hand, KS Bharat has retained his place as wicketkeeper batter in India’s squad for WTC Final. Bharat has pipped the likes of Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul and is the designated wicketkeeper batter in the squad. Follow WTC Final 2023 Live Updates with Insideport. IN.
🚨 NEWS 🚨#TeamIndia squad for ICC World Test Championship 2023 Final announced.
Details 🔽 #WTC23 https://t.co/sz7F5ByfiU pic.twitter.com/KIcH530rOL
— BCCI (@BCCI) April 25, 2023
For the uninitiated, Bharat made his Test debut in the Border Gavaskar Trophy against India but failed to grab his chances with bat and gloves. The Andhra batter missed quite a few chances and failed to score a single fifty in the four Test matches. Bharat slow returns with bat put enormous pressure on lower middle-order batters. India have also named KL Rahul in the squad, but it seems Bharat will keep the wickets in the WTC Final against Australia.
WTC Final 2023: Will KL Rahul be played in the middle order?
It seems highly unlikely that Rahul will don the gloves for the WTC final. The LSG captain does not have prior experience of keeping in Test cricket. With Bharat named in the WTC squad, Rahul can play in the middle-order role. The right-hand batter has had a fair amount of success batting at number five in ODIs. Rahul is yet to play in that role in Test cricket.
India are without Shreyas Iyer, and Rahul can fill the void left by the Mumbai batter. Although Ajinkya Rahane is picked in the middle order, he has not played a Test in over a year. Rahul last played two Test matches against Australia before he made way for Shubman Gill.
Ishan Kishan dropped
Meanwhile, Ishan Kishan is dropped without having a look in the Test squad. The Southpaw is in the scheme of things for white-ball setup but has to wait for chances in the Test squad.
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