The India cricket team selected two wicketkeepers for the 2024 T20 World Cup: Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant. The former played zero matches. He warmed the bench throughout the tournament. Pant was Team India’s designated wicketkeeper. Samson was to play in the final against South Africa, but at the last moment, Rohit Sharma changed his mind.
What happened to Sanju Samson will happen to Rishabh Pant
What happened to Samson last year might just happen to Pant now. The Men in Blue have announced their squad for the ICC Champions Trophy. And as usual, two wicketkeepers have been picked. This time, Samson isn’t there but Pant is. The other gloveman is KL Rahul. And what the southpaw had done to Samson will happen to him.
Rahul has been Team India’s designated number five in ODIs for some time now. He was exceptional in the ODI World Cup, averaging 75.33, and played whatever role the team wanted him to play in the middle order. There is no question about the Karnataka keeper batter missing out.
KL Rahul stats at No. 5 in ODIs
| Span | Matches | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | 100s | 50s | Highest Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-2023 | 30 | 1259 | 57.22 | 95.45 | 2 | 9 | 112 |
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KL Rahul, India’s No. 1 choice wicketkeeper for ICC Champions Trophy
Team India had tinkered with their line-up in the ongoing India vs. England series. They have played Yashasvi Jaiswal, Harshit Rana, and Varun Chakaravarthy but didn’t feel the need to rest/bench Rahul. In the last two white-ball ICC events, the batting order has been changed. Only injuries or unavailability have ruled a batter out.
If Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma aren’t changing the team now, when they have a chance, they won’t do it in the ICC Champions Trophy either. We know Gambhir likes the right-left combination, and that’s why he was going to play Yashasvi Jaiswal over Shreyas Iyer in Nagpur, but after seeing what Axar Patel can do in the middle overs with the bat, he might not feel the need to add Pant into the mix.
In short, Pant is expected to warm the bench throughout the ICC Champions Trophy with Rahul playing ahead.
India squad for ICC Champions Trophy 2025
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
