KL Rahul will not be donning the wicketkeeping gloves when India take on England on home turf in a 5-Test series, a BCCI source told Times of India.
Instead, the 31-year-old will be playing as a specialist batter during the series.
In addition to KL Rahul, wicketkeeper batters KS Bharat and Dhruv Jurel were also named in India’s squad for the Test series.
The TOI report explained the reason behind Rahul's relieving, "While in overseas Tests you just have to stand back to the pacers, wicketkeeping in India, where spinners may operate in tandem, isn’t easy. The ball can bounce or turn viciously on the spin friendly home wickets. You’ve to keep moving up and down as a ’keeper. We want a specialist in that role."
“Rahul, on the other hand, is one of our most valuable batting assets. We don’t want to burn him out by making him do the glovework as well. There is also a risk of him catching an injury while standing behind the stumps, which we can’t afford. Bharat and Jurel will be our wicketkeepers in this series,” The BCCI source said.
KL Rahul’s role in the team has been recently reshaped, with the batter transitioning into a middle-order batter. The 31-year-old scored a century against South Africa while batting at the number 6 spot.
The BCCI source told TOI that Jurel is a front-runner to replace Rahul behind the stumps.
“Jurel is a talented ’keeper-bat. We’ve been tracking this 22-year-old since the time he was playing for the India Under-19 team,” the unnamed source said.
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