When India plays Sri Lanka in a three-match series starting in Colombo on Friday, the team management led by Gautam Gambhir of India will have the option to choose between KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant as India’s long-term ODI wicket keeper-batsman.
After winning the T20 World Cup recently, there would also be huge excitement around Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s return for a match appearance according to PTI.
Gambhir is going to be watching over them both because they are vital for their future plans as he spoke before.
Also, this will be the first ODI for this duo since that devastating loss to Australia at last year’s world cup finals at Ahmedabad and they will hope that it becomes a memorable match marking the return of 50 overs format.
In a season featuring many top one-day international tournaments like Champions Trophy, think tank has to focus amid noise from outside on how they can put together the jigsaw puzzle.
Given that, it is not surprising if this sequence gave more attention to Rahul vs. Pant debate.
Rahul has been occupying that position as wicket-keeper batsman since Asia cup last year when she returned from an extended rest due to injury. He was once in previous team under Rahul Dravid leadership.
Since then, Rahul has fulfilled his duties excellently keeping and batting too.
Rahul has scored 834 runs off an average of 69.50 at an impressive strike rate in 21 matches played since then continent wide showpiece; two centuries included. Moreover, earlier during the year he captained India against South Africa during ODIs played there by his side.
He also happens to be a good wicketkeeper being thirty two years old himself.
However now with Pant back into contention will Gambhir take similar course?
It has been nice seeing Pant come back into Indian colors for some Twenty20 Internationals after that terrible accident of 2022 but he has not set the stage on fire.
Some glimmers of hope have been seen in the last month. Is that enough to sway the powers that be towards Rahul rather than him?
Gambhir and skipper Rohit need to plan on how they can accommodate Shreyas Iyer, another good performer at 50 over cricket, if both Rahul and Pant are opted for in the starting eleven.
Iyer ended his South Africa tour with 52 runs against them in Johannesburg ODIs. His record for 2023 is equally remarkable as he’s managed 846 runs at an average of 53 from twenty games including three hundreds.
Therefore, India may choose to use five bowlers if all these three are picked; hence it could be a tight fight among Rahul, Pant and Iyer sharing two batting positions between them on a three-way tie.
India would not want to follow such strict route especially because Hardik Pandya will miss this series due to personal matters.
Thus, India would like Riyan Parag or Shivam Dube play at number six.
However, using Parag as a bowler was a hint which many people did not understand during his recent Twenty20 Internationals matches indicating that he might be assigned more duties during ODI series.
This versatility is also boosted by the fact that Parag can switch between leg-spin and off-spinning techniques too much yet we hardly saw glimpses of this proficiency in IPL due to rules regarding impact players.
That being said, there is no denying that the Assamese has done pretty well in the Deodhar Trophy, a domestic fifty-over contest.
He finished sixth with 11 wickets and an economy rate of 4.8 in last season after Vidwath Kaverappa (13), Shams Mulani (12), Mayank Yadav (12), Shahbaz Ahmed (12), and R Sai Kishore (11).
However, on the other hand, Dube did not get to bowl at all versus Sri Lanka during this series as he only joined one ODI five years ago.
During their T20I series too but was bested by a single batting collapse; especially since they had periods of dominance some times because it is made up of young and seasoned players alike.
Although for pacers they will be without Matheesha Pathirana and Dilshan Madhushanka who are both injured and subsequently ruled out from the series.
India: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul(WK), Rishabh Pant(WK), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed and Harshit Rana.
Sri Lanka: Charith Asalanka(C), Pathum Nissanka, Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Kamindu Mendis, Janith Liyanage, Nishan Madushka, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dunith Wellalage, Chamika Karunaratne, Maheesh Theekshana, Akila Dananjaya, Ehsan Malinga, Mohammed Shiraz, Asitha Fernando
