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India head coach Rahul Dravid confirmed that KL Rahul, who has not kept wickets in red-ball cricket much, will take up the role behind the stumps for the first red-ball contest against South Africa, starting December 26. Rahul wasn’t India’s designated wicket-keeper in any of the three formats during his early days in the team but made the transition quite well in white-ball cricket. He is now India’s No. 1 choice behind the stumps in both T20Is and ODIs. Now, the team management wants to see how he does behind the stumps in Tests. But, former India wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel isn’t in agreement.

Parthiv, taking to social media platform ‘X’ (formerly Twitter), said that the wicket-keeper’s role in the Test team should be given to a player who has kept wickets in Ranji Trophy and First Class wicket.

“India’s test match wicketkeeper should be someone who is keeping regularly in Ranji trophy or first-class cricket….#imho #INDvSA #IndianCricket,” he posted on X.

india’s test match wicketkeeper should be someone who is keeping regularly in ranji trophy or first class cricket….#imho #INDvSA #IndianCricket

— parthiv patel (@parthiv9) December 24, 2023

On Sunday, Dravid gave his vote of confidence to Rahul for the wicket-keeper’s role while speaking in a press conference.

“I see it as an exciting challenge, an opportunity for him to certainly do something different. Obviously, with Ishan not being available this opportunity came up, we had a couple of keepers to choose from and Rahul is one of them.

“We do understand it is not something he has done as often (keeping in Tests). But he has been doing it regularly in 50 overs cricket and that takes a lot out of your body. He has prepared well over the last five to six months, he has done a lot of keeping,” Dravid said in the press conference.

“This will be a new and exciting challenge for him. I guess one of the things is there’s not going to be that much spin bowling, so that will ease him into the role a little bit, something how it goes and pans out,” the coach said.