Why KS Bharat fits the bill as wicket keeper for Eng series

IN 2019, MORE than a year after Rishabh Pant made his debut, as South Africa came visiting, India sprung a surprise.At Visakhapatnam, they drafted in another wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha ahead of Pant. Saha hadn't played a Test for 20 months.

- VENKATA KRISHNA

On turning pitches, where the ball can do all sorts of tricks, they valued the primary skills of Saha over what Pant offered with the bat. With their spinners capable of creating plenty of chances they didn't want any of them to go begging.

And five years later, despite a new team management and captain in place, in the pearl city of Hyderabad, India are fully valuing the gem of a wicketkeeper they have in KS Bharat.

Not even the presence of a brittle middle-order in the absence of Virat Kohli for the first two Tests against England is making Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid go with KL Rahul as a fill-in and rope in an extra batsman in Rajat Patidar or Rinku Singh.

Even when Kohli was around, the form of Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer would have tempted the team management to look at the possibility of handing the keeping gloves to Rahul. After establishing himself as their No.1 keeper in ODIS, Rahul had done nothing wrong in the two Tests he kept in South Africa.

But the question was whether he could keep wickets in Indian conditions, especially when fronting up to the spinners on pitches where even the world's best batsmen struggle. Bharat didn't do anything substantial with the bat during the last home series against Australia.

That the selectors even drafted in uncapped Dhruv Jurel, showed Bharat's spot in the XI wasn't sealed.