After Rishabh Pant suffered a horrific car accident towards the end of December, KS Bharat was touted as the wicket-keeper who would be donning the gloves in the Border Gavaskar Trophy series.
As expected, it was the Andhra Pradesh-based wicket-keeper batter who was handed his debut in the Test series. He hung around with the team for a long time and was always in the shadows of Rishabh Pant and Wriddhiman Saha.
But KS Bharat failed to impress with his batting prowess. Even though he was good with his keeping skills barring a few occasions, Bharat wasn’t dependable with the bat. In all the innings, the 29-year-old cricketer played in, he failed to get his bearings right and failed to grab the opportunity with both hands.
With the competition levels being so high in India, it is safe to say that KS Bharat has squandered his opportunities here.
In this article, we take a look at 3 reasons why KS Bharat might be dropped after the Border Gavaskar Test series:
1. KS Bharat’s poor performance with the bat
In the 3 matches he played in, KS Bharat failed to deliver the goods with the bat. The 29-year-old batter has logged scores of 8, 6, 23*, 17, and 3. Despite his continuous failures with the willow, Bharat was given a chance in the 4th Test match even though Ishan Kishan was there in the squad.
If his poor performances continue, KS Bharat will not be able to stake a claim for himself in the Indian cricket team.
2. The likes of Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson are waiting in the pecking order
India has a rich pool of players and the likes of Ishan and Sanju Samson can be tried and tested in the longest format of the game. Once Rishabh Pant recovers and stages a comeback, Bharat will have to sit out.
3. Specialist wicket-keeper days are over
The days of a specialist wicketkeeper are over. For a long period of time in the history of Test cricket, wicketkeeping was a skill-full and arduous task. But nowadays wicket-keepers need to be equally good with their batting skills.
Rishabh Pant, Mohammad Rizwan, Alex Carey, Tom Blundell, and Niroshan Dickwella are all equally good batters along with their wicket-keeping skills. All these keepers are the first-choice wicket-keepers for their respective nations while playing the red-ball format.
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