Rahul or Pant? ‘A happy headache’

By Paritosh Pramanik

NAGPUR, Feb 5

IT WILL be a headache for the team management when they sit to tick the final XI for the first One-Dayer against England at Jamtha Stadium on Thursday.

The main point of picking the right team would be the toss-up between wicketkeepers KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant.

Rahul has been donning the wicketkeepers gloves for the country quite well and might be the first choice again. However, the gamechanger Pant is, where he can change the complexion of the match in no time, it would be a decision the management would like to take looking all the scenarios. Rohit said it is a happy headache to have while picking the team.

“Obviously KL is being keeping wickets for us in the ODI format for a number of years now and he has done pretty well if you look at last 10-15 ODIs. He has done exactly what the team required... Rishabh is there...if there is option of playing either one of them.... both are capable of winning games on their own. So it’s a good headache to have whether to play KL or Rishabh. But obviously looking at what we have done in the past and...the continuity is also important for us and that is where we stand as a team with KL and Rishabh,” said Rohit during the pre-match presser on Wednesday evening.

Earlier, it was expected that Jasprit Bumrah would join the team from third ODI but he was not included when the team for last ODI was announced. “We are waiting fort some updates about his (Bumrah) scan which was due to happen in next few days. Once we get that scans we will be able to get more clarity on where he stands right now,” informed Rohit.

The Indian captain said people should not judge Mohd Shami in just few games he played during the domestic meets and should also think of the past what he has done for the team.

“Shami is coming back into the team after a gap of one and a half years. Don’t start judging players so early. He has done well in the past 12 years, you can look at his bowling in the World Cup, how he bowled. You can’t gauge him on one or two domestic matches. He is a match winner for us, taking wickets in heap, all these  should be taken into consideration. People have a tendency to think on short-term. Our (people’s) memory is short-term. We forget the past very easily. We forget what the player has done 6-8 months back. We judge a player on just one series or a few matches. This should not be the criteria,” Rohit replied.

Rohit said Varun Chakravarthy is very much in the scheme of things for the Champions Trophy.

“He has certainly shown something different, though it was a T20 format. But it’s clearly something different about him so we just wanted to have an option and see what we can do with him . Clearly it presents us an opportunity to play him at some stage and see what he is capable of. Right now we are not thinking about taking him of not (for Champions Trophy) but definitely he will be in contention if things pans out really well. If he does what is required from him then definitely there is something that we need to think about,” said the Indian captain.

On his own form in the past year, Rohit said ups and downs are part and parcel of a cricketers career and he is not thinking about the past. “As cricketers will all know there will be ups and downs and I have a faced a lot in my career so this is nothing new to me. We know every day is a fresh day, every series is fresh series. I am looking forward to the challenge and not thinking of what happened in the past. There is no reason for me to look behind....a lot of good things have happened as well. so it is important that I focus what is coming up and what lies ahead of me. it is as simple as that. I try and start the series on a high, let’s see what happens,” he said.

On reports that he was asked by the BCCI to clarify on his future plans after Champions Trophy, Rohit said, “how is it relevant that I talk about my future plans sitting here where we have three ODIs and Champions Trophy coming in next few days. The reports are going on for a number of years and I am not here to clarify those reports. 

For me, these three games here and then the Champions Trophy is very, very important. My focus is on these games we’ll see what happens after that.” he concluded.