With Team India locking horns with South Africa in a 2-match Test Series starting from December 26, wicketkeeper-batters Rishabh Pant and Ishan Kishan are unavailable for the series with KL Rahul taking over the gloves in their absence.

However, former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir feels that KL Rahul keeping the wickets shouldn’t just be a one time thing and that the Indian batter should be thought of as a long term option as well.

“I hope this is not a one-off situation because that would be unfair. His real challenge will not be wicketkeeping in South Africa, but on rank turners, in that five Test match series against England when Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar will be bowling. No challenge is bigger than that. If you are looking at these two Test matches, then I would rather not play him (as a keeper) because I would look at long-term plans, and India don’t have a long-term plan right now because you only have KS Bharat and Rahul now. But probably it is the right way of going about things in allowing KL Rahul do the job until Rishabh Pant returns,” Gambhir said on Star Sports.

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Gambhir feels KL Rahul will do well against The Proteas but should also be given a chance to keep wickets on India’s spin friendly tracks.

KL Rahul in ODI WC

KL Rahul was also given the chance to keep wickets during India’s ODI World Cup campaign and didn’t disappoint in high-pressure games. He also came handy with the bat on many occasions when the top order seemed to tumble under pressure. Rahul scored 452 runs in 10 innings at a decent strike rate of over 90 in the quadrennial event.

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