In the absence of the most senior wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni, the Indian team management is searching out the proper wicketkeeper for the limited-overs cricket. While KL Rahul is handling the wicketkeeper-batsman role in limited-overs formats, the former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif has opened up his feeling on this.
The former Indian World Cup-winning captain MS Dhoni, who retired from the Test cricket in late 2014, played the last match for India on 10th July 2019 during the semi-final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. While Dhoni continuously made himself unavailable for the national team selection, the team management has followed the other options for the limited-overs wicketkeeping roles.
At first, the team management tried with Rishabh Pant. However, Pant has hugely disappointed due to his inconsistent performances. Meanwhile, while KL Rahul has slowly improved his batting performances, he got the luck to keep the wicket due to the injury of Pant during the Mumbai ODI on 14th January 2020. Since then, Rahul has mostly kept wicket despite having fit regular wicketkeepers in the squad like Pant and Sanju Samson.
I feel that KL Rahul should be used as a backup wicketkeeper: Mohammad Kaif
However, Mohammad Kaif feels that Rahul should be used only as a backup wicketkeeper in the Indian team rather than as a regular wicketkeeper. Kaif believes that the regular wicketkeeper Rahul will have more chances to face injuries due to additional workload.
Kaif recently told ANI, “People think that Rahul may become our main keeper in the future. But I feel that Rahul should be used as a backup wicketkeeper, if the main keeper is injured or he is not with the team then Rahul should be there because if you rely on him as the main keeper then chances of injuries will grow as the workload will increase on him.”
Kaif also feels that Dhoni’s international cricket future shouldn’t be judged according to his IPL performances. The former Indian cricketer believes that a lot of cricket is still left in Dhoni.