The World Test Championship final is set to begin on June 7, 2023, at the Oval in London. As we knew earlier, KL Rahul has been ruled out of the remainder of the IPL and WTC Final due to an injury. The veteran batsman will undergo surgery on his thigh, and we wish him a speedy recovery. Meanwhile, BCCI has just announced that Ishan Kishan, the destructive wicketkeeper batsman from Mumbai Indians, will replace Rahul in the WTC final squad.
Ishan Kishan has been in fine touch in the ongoing IPL. As the southpaw batsman has amassed 293 runs in 10 innings thus far, which includes two fifties, the young batsman has never previously represented India in the longest format. However, Kishan has decent experience in first-class cricket; he has scored 2985 runs in 48 matches at a respectable average of 38.76. The fact that he can keep wickets and young at same time probably gave him an edge over his peers. It will be interesting to see if Kishan can make it to the final playing XI and show the world what he is capable of.
The updated Indian squad for WTC final: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Kishan (wk).
Standby players: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Mukesh Kumar, Suryakumar Yadav.
Although Ishan Kishan got picked in the WTC final squad, many fans believed veteran Keeper Wriddhiman Saha deserved that spot much more than Kishan after he played a blistering knock of 81 against the Lucknow Super Giants yesterday. Saha is also probably one of the best wicketkeepers in the world currently, and age is probably not a huge factor here as we are just talking about one test. Many Twitter users also felt the youngster, Yashasvi Jaiswal, could have been an ideal pick too . He has been in red-hot form in the ongoing IPL and has the technique to survive against swinging deliveries in English conditions.
You can see how Twitter users expressed their disappointment below:
Who is going to be a wicket keeper of Bharat becomes unavailable yashasvi jaiswal should have been selected he is left hander as well kl Rahul.will be replaced as well
— Anshul Gulati (@ans_gullu) May 8, 2023
Ishan Kishan not a great player To Replacement For KL Rahul WTC Final @BCCI
— Arvind Raghava (@ArvindRaghava5) May 8, 2023
Cricket fans pic.twitter.com/0MHhWR4HTj
— djay (@djaywalebabu) May 8, 2023
Ishan will play whole life because he is friends with all superstars where as best wicketkeeper like Saha will be shown door even if Pant is injured.
— Shubman Gang (@ShubmanGang) May 8, 2023
I will never understand how BCCI's selection works😂
— Pooh (@ThodaYehThodaWo) May 8, 2023
Won't change the fact
Saha deserved this spot more than anyone else— divz (@koliesque) May 8, 2023
Makes no difference to the team. X-0+0 = X
— Bineet Mishra (@bineetmishra) May 8, 2023
