Former India National Cricket Team opener Aakash Chopra has settled the KL Rahul vs Rishabh Pant debate ahead of the upcoming three-match ODI series against the England National Cricket Team.
Aakash Chopra shared his honest views on KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant before naming a player who should don the wicketkeeping gloves in the ODI series against England as well as in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
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KL Rahul vs Rishabh Pant For Wicketkeeper Spot In ODI XI
Last month, Ajit Agarkar and Rohit Sharma announced the India squad for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 and England series at a press conference.
KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant were chosen as the two wicketkeeper-batsmen, and the likes of Dhruv Jurel, Sanju Samson, and Ishan Kishan were ignored by the selectors.
Rahul and Pant will be fighting for a place in the India ODI XI and it will be interesting to see whom will the Gautam Gambhir-led team management prefer.
KL Rahul emerged as India’s first-choice keeper in ODIs after Rishabh Pant was ruled out of cricket for a long period following his road accident. The Karnataka star even kept wickets in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, where he did an excellent job behind the stumps, and with the bat, he smashed 452 runs at an average of 75.33 in 10 innings.
Talking about Rishabh Pant, the Delhi star has featured in 31 ODI matches for India and his record is quite poor. He has scored just 871 runs at an average of 33.50 and a strike rate of 106.21 compared to Rahul, who has amassed 2851 runs in 77 ODIs at an amazing average of 49.15 and a strike rate of 87.56.
Pant has solely been added to the squad based on his potential, as many cricket experts call him a ‘generational talent’ who is yet to showcase his full potential in 50-over cricket.
What goes in KL Rahul’s favor is what wrong has he done – Aakash Chopra
Speaking on his official YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra was asked to choose between Rahul and Pant as first-choice ODI wicketkeeper-batter.
Chopra reckoned that Pant being left-handed, goes in favor, but Rahul has been a consistent performer in ODIs and has not done anything wrong to be dropped.
“There are two schools of thought. One is that you have all right-handers, Shubman Gill is there with Rohit Sharma, then Virat Kohli, Rahul and Hardik Pandya. So don’t you want a left-hander there? People who come with that thinking are saying Rishabh Pant should be played,” Chopra said.
“What goes in KL Rahul’s favor is what wrong has he done. Just because his name is Rahul, will you keep drumming him? Will you keep getting him to do all the jobs, whether it’s keeping, going down or up the order, and serving the drinks? No, that’s not going to happen,” he added.
I am going with continuity – Aakash Chopra picks KL Rahul over Rishabh Pant
The former India opening batsman further reminded everyone of KL Rahul’s heroics in the group stage match against Australia under pressure in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 and said:
“He played well in the World Cup. I still remember the Australia match at Chepauk. India were reduced 25/3, something like that, and he performed like a Player of the Match. Then he continuously scored alright. He was criticized a lot for batting a little slow in the final, but we might not have reached where we reached if he had gotten out instead of batting slow.”
Chopra signed off by saying that Rahul would be his first-choice ODI wicketkeeper and he should be the frontrunner for the job in the team management’s eyes as well.
“I am going with KL Rahul. I am going with continuity. Why would you drop someone who hasn’t done anything wrong just because someone else does well? Rishabh Pant’s ODI record is a work in progress and KL Rahul hasn’t done anything wrong. So Rahul should be the frontrunner.”
