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With Rishabh Pant almost certain to be picked in India’s T20 World Cup team, the debate is over the second wicket-keeper. In the last two T20 World Cups, Ishan Kishan got his due because of three factors. He was a back-up opener, middle-order batter and a wicket-keeper. With the Jharkhand cricketer not in the good books of the selectors and after missing out on the BCCI’s annual contract, Ishan can’t fancy his chances right away. But as he is young, he will come back into the Indian team one day. When? We don’t know that right now.
What we know is that Sanju Samson is definitely in the reckoning while KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik and Jitesh Sharma are a few other names doing the rounds. Who will ultimately win the vote of the selectors? The back-up wicket-keepers, who match Ishan, are Samson and Rahul. But that doesn’t mean that Dinesh Karthik and Jitesh Sharma can’t be back-ups.
Indications are strong that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma could open the innings for India in the T20 World Cup, so the back-up opener could be either Yashasvi Jaiswal or Shubman Gill. Possibly, India don’t have to opt for two back-up openers at his stage with a wicket-keeper who can open the innings. The race for the wicket-keeper’s slot is so open that it has become the second most contentious point for the selectors after sorting out the bowling line-up for the ICC event.
Believe it or not, IPL isn’t helping the Indian selectors alone to fix their national team for the T20 event, most of the other teams are also using this richest T20 league as a bench-mark to select their team. All those talks that the Indian selectors pick players after watching the IPL isn’t fair. IPL is really a testing ground for all T20 specialists. It is a different story when India team does badly in T20 ICC events, the critics blame IPL. But those who win T20 World Cups, they also play IPL and win tournaments for their national side, why can’t India?
