Former Indian wicket-keeper bat Farokh Engineer believes KL Rahul is worth backing as a wicket-keeper in limited-overs format. Rahul has improved his glovework and has delivered the goods for the team in ODIs.
The right-hander was brilliant in the ODI World Cup 2023 while keeping behind the stumps. Rahul scored 452 runs in 10 innings of the ODI World Cup at an average of 75.33 and played a key role in taking India to the final of the showpiece.
However, Engineer doesn’t support the idea of Rahul keeping wickets in Test matches and feels it makes sense to back a specialist wicket-keeper in the red-ball version. India is backing KS Bharat in the ongoing Test series against England whereas Rahul missed the second Test match due to quadriceps pain in the right leg.
“For a One-Day or T20 game, you could play with a batsman-keeper and get away with it. You know, like KL Rahul. He has improved over the years. He kept wickets quite well. He is not a brilliant wicketkeeper. But what a great, brilliant batsman he is. He is definitely worth his weight in platinum to be in the side and keep wickets,” Farokh Engineer said on the sidelines of a felicitation program in Mumbai.
“But (for Tests) You got to have your best wicketkeeper. You got to have a wicketkeeper-batsman instead of a batsman-wicketkeeper. Of course, everyone is required to bat these days. In the opinion of selectors, Bharat is a better ‘keeper, is he?,” Engineer added.
Meanwhile, Rahul also scored a magnificent century in the first Test match against South Africa but his efforts went in vain as India lost that game. Rahul scored 86 runs in the first innings of the opening Test against England and will want to make a good comeback after recovering from injury.
India need four more wickets to win the second Test match and level the series.
