India will play Australia in the 2023 World Test Champions Final (WTC) from June 7 to June 11 at The Oval in London, England. With the game nearing head coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma will be putting together the final lineup to face the Aussies.
One of the bigger headaches the duo would have is deciding who is India's wicketkeeper at the WTC final, with KS Bharat and Ishan Kishan both members of the squad who have travelled to England.
While it is worth noting that KS Bharat was India's first-choice wicketkeeper in the Australia series at home earlier this year, Ishan Kishan's late inclusion into the WTC Final squad has put Bharat's spot under the scanner.
It must be noted that Bharat failed to make an impression against Australia with the bat, though he was generally good with the gloves. While Kishan is not necessarily the better keeper, experts reckon he could be in with a shout of making the playing XI, given his batting skills and aggressive approach that mirrors Rishab Pant, who India will miss sorely.
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Will India go with Ishan Kishan?
Taking to Twitter, renowned cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle predicted who would feature in the starting lineup for India against Australia in the WTC Final. Bhogle opined that nine players including the likes of Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, and Mohammed Shami, to name a few, would be guaranteed starters. For the wicketkeeper position, he felt that Kishan would start over Bharat due to the impressive batting conditions at the Oval.
I think 9 players pick themselves for India. Rohit, Gill, Pujara, Virat, Rahane, Jadeja, Bharat, Shami, Siraj. Depending on conditions/instinct/form, no 8 could be Ashwin (my choice) or Shardul and no 9 Umesh or Unadkat. In very good batting conditions alone, India might consider…
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) June 2, 2023
Former India wicketkeeper Saba Karim was also of the same opinion in a chat with Times of India. He stated that Bharat will likely get the jump on Kishan due to him playing as India's wicketkeeper in the Border-Gavaskar series against Australia earlier this year. Karim remarked that had the Mumbai Indians opener played in India's last Test games, then he would have been the first choice for the WTC Final.
"I don’t think at this stage they will want to play Ishan Kishan. I think they will persist with KS Bharat since he has kept wickets for India in the home series. The kind of security Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma want to give the players, I think they will continue with Bharat. If they had played Ishan Kishan in the home series, I think he could have had a chance. But since they haven’t done that, I don’t think they will take the chance in a crucial game like this and play him straight away."
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Who do you think should play for India? Ishan Kishan or KS Bharat?
