India vs England: Vikram Rathour opens up on KL Rahul-Rishabh Pant debate

India’s young wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant is living the golden phase of his cricket career especially in the purest format of the game. Playing in the Test series against Australia and England, Pant hammered the ball like anything and emerged as the wrecker-in-chief for the Men in Blue in both the tours. It is also learned that the youngster has significantly improved his fitness by losing weight along with working on his glove-work.

The blistering form of Pant has resulted in the Indian team management and the captain Virat Kohli facing a dilemma on who should be considered for the first-choice wicketkeeper in the Playing XI for the five-match T20I series against England, starting from March 12 at Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium. 

There is a tough competition between KL Rahul and Pant regarding the wicketkeeper slot as both the players have done complete justice to the role. The confusion of choosing one between Rahul and Pant had begun last year during the home ODI series against Australia in January. After Pant had injured himself during the second One Day International, India was forced to hand the duty of keeper to Rahul as he was the only available option.

Rishabh is back in form and doing well: Vikram Rathour

That is when the Punjab Kings captain managed to impress both with his performance with the gloves and the bat. This was followed by Rahul leapfrogging Pant to become the first-choice wicketkeeper in the T20I series against New Zealand and Australia. However, with Pant back in form, the selectors will be again forced to make a hard choice.

Team India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour opined on the aforementioned matter saying that both KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant are excellent cricketers and one needs to wait for the match to know how the team combination goes.

“KL has done really well as a wicketkeeper-batsman. He has been a superb cricketer, he has batted really well, he has kept reasonably well. Now Rishabh [Pant] (is) back in form and doing well, let’s see how it goes. Once this situation comes, what the team management is looking to do, that’ll happen on the day of the game and how this series goes,” Rathour said in an interview with ESPNCricinfo.