5 lesser-known wicketkeepers who can replace Rishabh Pant in the Indian team

Rishabh Pant is not exactly the darling of the Indian cricket fans at the moment. While his Test career has been solid, but his exploits in ODIs and T20Is have left much to be desired. He made his T20I debut in 2017 against England, thanks to an explosive IPL season, where he tore apart many a bowling lineups.

However, since his debut in Tests, he had a good run with centuries in England and Australia, with two scores of 92 runs each in two Tests against the West Indies at home. However, his 20-over and 50-over careers have been a hit and miss with 229 runs in 10 ODIs and 325 runs in 20 T20Is. With continued failures in World Cup and West Indies tour; Pant has been targeted a lot and some experts are clamoring for Pant to be given a breather while giving chances to some other wicketkeepers.

Though many of the known names are in the line to replace Pant in the Men in Blue squad, we take a look at five unknown quantities who have done amazingly well in the domestic cricket and various T20 leagues in India.

Here are the five lesser-known wicketkeepers who can replace Rishabh Pant in the Indian team

1. Narayan Jagadeesan

25-year-old Narayan Jagadeesan hails from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu and was part of Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2018. Jagadeesan has been in news for his performances for Dindigul Dragons in the Tamil Nadu Premier League T20 competition which has attracted many eyeballs for interesting and top-flight cricket by local talents.

Jagadeesan is an opener-wicketkeeper, a rare combination seen in today’s world. His glovework is very good and is constantly getting better with experience and working with other experts. Having made his FC debut in 2016, Jagadeesan has 837 runs in 17 matches with 3 centuries and 3 half-centuries at an average of 41.58 and the best score of 131*. In 39 limited-overs matches in domestic cricket, the right-handed batsman has 1005 runs with one century and 5 half-centuries to his name.

However, most of his amazing work has come for TNPL, where he has scored 396 runs last year and then followed that up with 448 runs in 2019 edition. Jagadeesan has shown malleability to the different formats whenever he has played in domestic cricket and it’s this flexibility that will be key for him as he throws his hat into the ring for wicketkeeper probables.