India vs South Africa: KL Rahul 'very confident' about keeping wickets in Tests, says coach Rahul Dravid

Two days before the highly-anticipated Test series between India and South Africa gets underway in Centurion, head coach Rahul Dravid revealed he had spoken to KL Rahul about keeping the wickets during the series, adding that the 31-year-old is confident about pulling off the job.

Rishabh Pant, India’s first-choice wicketkeeper across formats, is still undergoing rehabilitation after his car accident in December last year, and Ishan Kishan having opted to take a ‘mental health’ break from the Test series. In such a scenario, the Indian team management’s options have been narrowed down to Rahul and Srikar Bharat, who had been included as Kishan’s replacement.

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While there are no complaints with Bharat as far as his keeping skills are concerned, his lack of contribution with the bat is what has put a question mark over his selection in the upcoming series. Andhra wicketkeeper-batter Bharat has collected just 129 runs at an average of 18.42 in his five Test appearances, the last of which was in the World Test Championship final against Australia in June.

“I see it as an exciting challenge, an opportunity for him to certainly do something different. Obviously, with Ishan not being available this opportunity came up, we had a couple of keepers to choose from and Rahul is one of them.

“We had discussed with him and he was very confident and was keen on giving it a go,” Dravid told reporters two days before the first Test gets underway at Centurion’s SuperSport Park.

Rahul had kept wickets for the Men in Blue during the recently-concluded ICC World Cup, during which he not only pulled off some exceptional catches behind the stumps and also starred with the bat, but played a central role in helping skipper Rohit Sharma make decisions concerning the Decision Review System.

Dravid’s aware of the fact that keeping the wickets is a very different challenge in the five-day format compared to limited-overs cricket, but backed his namesake to do a fine job in the two Tests.

“We do understand it is not something he has done as often (keeping in Tests). But he has been doing it regularly in 50 overs cricket and that takes a lot out of your body. He has prepared well over the last five to six months, he has done a lot of keeping,” Dravid added.

The former India captain also hinted at India playing just one frontline spinner in the Centurion Test by stating that Rahul wouldn’t have to worry too much about keeping wickets to the spinners. Skipper Rohit Sharma, and head coach Dravid will thus have to pick between off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and left-arm finger spinner Ravindra Jadeja for the spinner’s slot.

“This will be a new and exciting challenge for him. I guess one of the things is there’s not going to be that much spin bowling, so that will ease him into the role a little bit, something how it goes and pans out.

“It’s really nice to have him for the option he provides us. His ability with the bat will be useful and he has kept in white ball cricket and the question is of transforming that into red ball cricket,” Dravid added.

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As for the weather forecast, which has predicted heavy rains for the first two days, Dravid felt the Indians had enough firepower in their bowling unit to make the most of the extra moisture that is likely to have an impact.

“Look, you need to check out what happens on the match day. We still have another day left before the match starts. We need to see what’s in-front of us. What’s up there (sky) and what’s down there (pitch), you will only know on the match day.

“We will take a decision but we have balance, if we want, we can play two spinners and three seamers and maybe four seamers. We have that depth and balance (in team) but you can’t control weather, he sounded a tad bullish,” Dravid signed off.